Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastcotts: Why It Happens
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Eastcotts, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — but many newer diesels driven around Eastcotts and Elstow carry a second fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Eastcotts?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a driveway off Meadowsweet Drive before work, or in the car park at The Bull on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Harrowden or bang in the centre of Eastcotts.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in South End or a forecourt around Eastcotts.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — at Bedford St Johns's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Bedfordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Marigold Way, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Eastcotts?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own drive around Eastcotts is the place it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is where to come off if you are on the M1, under 10 miles from Eastcotts. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Eastcotts.
When we turn up in Eastcotts, what happens?
Wherever the car came to rest, whether outside King's Oak Primary School, beside Bunyan Sports Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. That price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Eastcotts, briefly
Eastcotts is a suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 28 metres, and forms part of the larger urban area near Milton Keynes. Eastcotts is located near several other suburban areas, including Harrowden, Shortstown, and Fenlake, and is approximately 44 miles from London. Eastcotts has a population of around 3548 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Eastcotts is positioned near the city of Milton Keynes, which is 14 miles away.
Eastcotts and Bedfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Eastcotts shares its vans surrounding places — Shortstown, Fenlake — all the way through MK postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a MK42 0 postcode to the van.
There's no need to move your car. Wherever it stands — near RAF Cardington 1936-2000, in a lay-by heading to Jubilee Park, at home — that's where it is cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St. Michael and All Angels.
In short, for Eastcotts motorists
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around Bedfordshire.