Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Haynes: Why It Occurs
Keep your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle is in Haynes. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Littleworth, like those in Haynes, run on two liquids; the motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Haynes: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Foresters Close, perhaps at The Greyhound on the way home that evening.
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 the 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 any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Haynes or out in Deadmans Cross.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Haynes forecourt or a driveway out in Herrings Green, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — from Kempston Hardwick's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever around Bedfordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Howard Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Haynes: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Harvest Energy, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Haynes.
When the motor has been run already, stop safely and switch the vehicle off. Haynes lies under 10 miles from the M1; there, use the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Haynes is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles to Milton Keynes, and so say.
When our engineers get there around Haynes, what occurs?
Wherever your car came to rest, whether by Haynes Lower School, beside Haynes Methodist Church or on your own drive, our van travels to it. The replies determine this work and our price, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. On the call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Haynes itself
Haynes is a small village in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 87 metres, with a mix of rural and residential areas. Haynes has a population of around 913 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Haynes is located near several smaller settlements, including Deadmans Cross and Appley Corner, and is close to the larger town of Milton Keynes. Haynes is also about 40 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Haynes included
Appley Corner and Haynes Church End are among the places near Haynes, a rural village, that the same vans cover, throughout MK postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting MK45 3.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Ebenezer Strict Baptict Chapel, a lay-by on the way to Warden Great Wood, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of Haynes Mission Hall? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
Haynes drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Bedfordshire.