Harlington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Harlington. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels on the roads around Harlington and Upper Sundon carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Harlington: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Westoning Road before work, or in the car park outside Carpenter's Arms on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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 once it has started. Westoning or the heart of Harlington: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Fancott or a forecourt in Harlington, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — at the nearest station's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is across Bedfordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Church Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Harlington already?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at BP, Tesco or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Harlington.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is the place to come off if you are on the M1, under a mile from Harlington. A short hop across Harlington is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians get there in Harlington
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Harlington Lower School, near Harlington Village Hall or on your own driveway. What liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set both work and quote. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take about half an hour once we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Harlington itself
Harlington is a village in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 109 metres, approximately 35 miles north of London. Harlington lies near the towns of Milton Keynes and the surrounding villages of Westoning and Wood End. Harlington has a population of around 1679 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Harlington is also close to the historic Sharpenhoe area, with its cliffs and scenic views.
AdBlue drains round Harlington, and Bedfordshire beyond
Wood End and Sharpenhoe are among the places near Harlington, a rural village, that the same vans cover, throughout LU postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning LU5 6, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting the car is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Harlington Parish Hall, a lay-by on the way to Toddington Borehole, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Church of St Mary The Virgin.
In short, for Harlington drivers
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Bedfordshire.