Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Faringdon: Why It Occurs
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. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Faringdon. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around Shellingford, like those in Faringdon, run on two liquids; your engine gets only your diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Faringdon: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Market Place, or at The Old Crown Coaching Inn on the way home after work.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Little Coxwell or right in the centre of Faringdon.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Faringdon or a driveway out in Fernham. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you 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 Swindon.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever in Oxfordshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cornmarket, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Faringdon?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Esso, BP or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Faringdon, leave it where it sits.
When the engine has run by now, stop safely and turn the vehicle off. The next junction means where to come off when you're on the M4, under 10 miles from Faringdon. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Faringdon.
When our engineers arrive in Faringdon, what occurs?
Outside The Elms Primary School, near Portwell Bench Diver Statue or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those replies settle the work and our quote. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Faringdon itself
Faringdon is a small town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, situated approximately 15 miles southwest of Oxford and 63 miles west of London. Faringdon sits at an elevation of around 106 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby villages such as Little Coxwell and Great Coxwell. Faringdon has a population of around 8217 people, predominantly living in detached houses, and is a commuter town for nearby Oxford. Faringdon remains a quiet, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
Faringdon and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over SN postcodes, our teams that cover Faringdon — a town — work the surrounding places too, Littleworth and Great Coxwell included. Quickest of all: quote a SN7 7 postcode to the van.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Faringdon Park, a side street near Blessed Hugh: we drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind All Saints, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Faringdon drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Oxfordshire.