Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Elms Farm: Why It Occurs
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Elms Farm. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads around Elms Farm and Workhouse End carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
Elms Farm: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Hudson Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Polhill Arms.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Renhold or the heart of Elms Farm: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Elms Farm forecourt or a driveway over in Woodside, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Bedford St Johns's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever across Bedfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not rushed by Asgard Drive on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
Elms Farm: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the JET or somewhere else. If you are on your own driveway around Elms Farm, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M1 — under 15 miles out of Elms Farm — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Elms Farm.
Our arrival around Elms Farm, and what occurs next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether outside Putnoe Primary School, near Church Lane Community Centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and price. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. Once your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Elms Farm and where it is
Elms Farm is a suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 27 metres, and forms part of the wider area around Milton Keynes. Elms Farm is located near the villages of Renhold, Goldington, and Salph End, and is approximately 46 miles from London. Elms Farm has a population of around 3178 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Elms Farm is characterized by its residential layout, with a mix of local amenities and services.
AdBlue drains around Elms Farm and across Bedfordshire
Being a residential suburb, Elms Farm shares its vans nearby areas — Goldington, Salph End — all the way through MK postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts MK41 0, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Bedford Town Cricket Club, a side street near Saint Mary: our technicians drain the car where it sits. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Parish Church of All Saints Renhold, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Elms Farm people
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Bedfordshire.