How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greenmeadow
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your car sits around Greenmeadow, is normally all it takes when found before your engine runs. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads about Greenmeadow and Ash Brake carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
Greenmeadow: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Hamble Road, or outside Shield and Dagger on the way home after work.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Greenmeadow or out in Moredon.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Greenmeadow forecourt or a drive over in Pinehurst, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Swindon? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Wiltshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Thames Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Greenmeadow: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Asda, the BP or somewhere else. Your own drive around Greenmeadow is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Greenmeadow sits under 5 miles from the M4; on it, take the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Greenmeadow is a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Oxford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Greenmeadow, and what happens next
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it outside Greenmeadow Primary School, beside Emmanuel United Reform Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. The price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is emptied and the system cleaned thoroughly. 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. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. After that our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after we arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Greenmeadow, briefly
Greenmeadow is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 95 metres. Greenmeadow lies near several other residential areas, including Moredon, Haydon Wick, and Abbey Meads, and is located approximately 25.8 miles from Oxford. Greenmeadow has a population of around 6545 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Greenmeadow is also within commuting distance of London, being around 72.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Greenmeadow and across Wiltshire
Haydon Wick and Abbey Meads are among the places near Greenmeadow, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over SN postcodes. Give a postcode that starts SN25 3, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by Rodbourne Cheney Library, or a layby on the way to King George V Field Play Area. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St Andrew's Methodist Church, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
For Greenmeadow drivers, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire.