Hawkesbury: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits in Hawkesbury, is usually what it takes if caught before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around Longford, as well as Hawkesbury, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just your diesel. 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 is a filler for each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
Hawkesbury: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Sanders Road before work, or in the car park outside The Boat Inn on the way home.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. It's a few seconds, whether in Foxford or bang in the centre of Hawkesbury.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Hawkesbury or a drive out in Woodshires Green. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Coventry Arena, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is around Warwickshire — a routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Waterside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hawkesbury already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Texaco, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Hawkesbury.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction is where to leave when you're on the M6, under a mile from Hawkesbury. About how far did it go? Hopping across Hawkesbury is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Coventry, so say.
What occurs when we arrive in Hawkesbury
The van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near Greyhound Gun Club, or by Grangehurst Primary School. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we go.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Hawkesbury and where it is
Hawkesbury is a village in Warwickshire, situated on the River Sowe, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Hawkesbury sits at an elevation of 93 metres, close to the city of Coventry and near other local places such as Foxford and Exhall. Hawkesbury has a population of around 2288 people and is located near the larger urban area of Coventry, while also being within commuting distance of other West Midlands towns. Hawkesbury is about 87 miles northwest of London, making it a potential base for those working in the capital,
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Hawkesbury included
Throughout CV postcodes, our vans that cover Hawkesbury — a village — work the surrounding spots too, Aldermans Green and Exhall among them. A postcode starting CV6 6 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside Gurdwara Dhan Dhan Baba Vadbhag Singh Ji, in a lay-by heading to Site of Disused Mine Shaft, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Union Place Baptist Church.
The short version for Hawkesbury motorists
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Warwickshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.