Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hanslope
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Hanslope. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads round Hanslope and Castlethorpe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
Hanslope: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Market Square before work, or in the car park at Hanslope Working Mens Club heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the pour begins, no part stops it. Whether it takes place in Church End or the middle of Hanslope, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Stoke Goldington or a forecourt in Hanslope.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a rental or company car — from Wolverton's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Buckinghamshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew 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 the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Hanslope?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Essar or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Hanslope.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over safely and turn the car off. The next exit means the place to leave when you're on the M1, under a mile from Hanslope. A short hop across Hanslope is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive in Hanslope, what happens?
Outside Hanslope Primary School, near Hanslope Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers determine this work and our price. Nobody sets off until you've had our quote over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Hanslope
Hanslope is a village in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 119 metres, with a mix of old and new housing, predominantly detached homes. Hanslope lies near the larger town of Milton Keynes, approximately 5.8 miles away, and is also close to smaller settlements like Church End and Long Street. Hanslope has a population of around 1775 residents, living in a variety of homes, many of which are detached properties. Hanslope is located about 51.5 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter village for some residents.
Hanslope and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Hanslope is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Long Street and Tathall End among them, across the MK postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting MK19 7.
No need to shift the car. The drain takes place right there, whether a drive, a road near St James the Great, or a layby on the way to Longland's Wood. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of The Pavilion, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Hanslope people
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Buckinghamshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.