Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Horwood: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Great Horwood, finding it before the motor runs normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Great Horwood and Adstock run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your 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. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Great Horwood: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off School End, perhaps outside The Swan Inn on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Singleborough or the middle of Great Horwood, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Great Horwood or a driveway over in Winslow. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Milton Keynes Central's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Buckinghamshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Great Horwood?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — JET, Tesco or any other — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Great Horwood.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you are on the M1, under 10 miles from Great Horwood. A short hop across Great Horwood is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive around Great Horwood, what happens?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Great Horwood Church of England School, close to St James or on your own driveway. What fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and price. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Great Horwood
Great Horwood is a small village in inland Buckinghamshire, situated approximately 7 miles from Milton Keynes and 45 miles northwest of London. Great Horwood sits at an elevation of around 123 metres, surrounded by nearby villages such as Singleborough and Little Horwood. Great Horwood has a population of around 727 residents, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Great Horwood remains a quiet rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains in Great Horwood and across Buckinghamshire
Throughout MK postcodes, our teams covering Great Horwood — a rural village — work the nearby locations too, Nash and Little Horwood included. Give a postcode beginning MK17 0, and our van arrives quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road by Little Horwood: St Nicholas, or a layby towards Roddimore Covert. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Little Horwood Manor.
The short version for Great Horwood people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Buckinghamshire.