How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Elmhurst
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not run, it is drained and fully cleaned where the vehicle is around Elmhurst. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Victoria Park, as well as Elmhurst, carry on two fluids; the motor takes only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Elmhurst: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Hilton Avenue, or at The Dairy Maid on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it occurs in Manor Park or the middle of Elmhurst, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in California or a forecourt in Elmhurst, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Aylesbury.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Buckinghamshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Fairfax Crescent, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Elmhurst already?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Kindell Motors Ltd., the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Elmhurst.
When the engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. On the M40, under 15 miles from Elmhurst, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Elmhurst.
When our technicians arrive around Elmhurst, what happens?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Elmhurst School, close to Alfred Rose Park Community Centre or on your own drive. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the answers set both work and price. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Elmhurst and where it is
Elmhurst is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 76 metres. Elmhurst lies near several other residential areas, including Manor Park and Watermead, and is within commuting distance of larger towns like Aylesbury and Milton Keynes. Elmhurst has a population of approximately 8342 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Elmhurst is also relatively close to London, at a distance of around 36.5 miles.
AdBlue drains across Buckinghamshire, Elmhurst included
Throughout HP postcodes, the vans covering Elmhurst — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Aylesbury and Watermead included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HP20 2.
The car does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Aylesbury Methodist Church & Centre, a lay-by on the way to Alfred Rose Park, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Aqua Vale Swimming & Fitness Centre? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Elmhurst drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Buckinghamshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.