Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fishermead: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands in Fishermead, is normally what it takes when caught before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads around Fishermead and Oldbrook carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Fishermead?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Chaffron Way, or at The Eagle on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Leadenhall or right in the heart of Fishermead.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Springfield or a forecourt in Fishermead.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — at Milton Keynes Central's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Buckinghamshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Harrier Drive, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fishermead?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or somewhere else. Your own driveway in Fishermead is where it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is the place to come off if you're on the M1, under 3 miles from Fishermead. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Fishermead is less a job than a trip of under a mile towards Milton Keynes, so tell us.
When our technicians arrive in Fishermead, what occurs?
By Falconhurst School, close to Eaglestone Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The answers decide this work and our quote, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Fishermead, for a moment
Fishermead is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 99 metres. Fishermead lies close to the city of Milton Keynes, with which it is closely associated, and is near other local places such as Leadenhall and Eaglestone. Fishermead has a population of around 8217 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Fishermead is also within commuting distance of London, being approximately 44.8 miles away.
Fishermead and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Fishermead shares its vans nearby areas — Eaglestone, Peartree Bridge — all the way through MK postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode beginning MK6 2, and the van arrives quickest.
No need to shift your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Woughton on the Green, a side street near Griffin sculpture: we drain the car where it stands. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Trinity Church, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
For Fishermead drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Buckinghamshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.