AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Farnham Common: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Farnham Common, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels around Farnham Royal, like those in Farnham Common, carry on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Farnham Common?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Beaconsfield Road, perhaps outside Stag and Hounds on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Farnham Common or out in Egypt.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Hedgerley or a forecourt around Farnham Common.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Burnham's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere around Buckinghamshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Beeches Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Farnham Common?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Texaco, BP or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. Your own drive in Farnham Common is where it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Farnham Common sits under 3 miles from the M40; there, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Farnham Common.
What takes place when we get there around Farnham Common
Outside Farnham Common Infant School, close to Living Word International Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Those answers decide this work and the price, so we ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and 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. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Farnham Common itself
Farnham Common is a village in Buckinghamshire, situated near the River Colne and close to the borders of Berkshire and Surrey. Farnham Common has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Egypt and East Burnham. Farnham Common sits at an elevation of 77 metres, within the South East region of England, and is located approximately 21 miles from London. Farnham Common is also near Farnham Park, a local area of interest.
Farnham Common and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
East Burnham and Farnham Park are among the towns near Farnham Common, a village, that the same teams cover, over SL postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning SL2 3, and the van gets there quickest.
The car doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Temple Dell, a side street close to Farnham Common Library: we drain it where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St John the Evangelist? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
Farnham Common people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Buckinghamshire.