Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kennington
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Kennington. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the engine — but many current diesels seen around Kennington and Cold Harbour carry another fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
Kennington: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your 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 drive off Bagley Wood Road before work, or in the car park at The Tandem on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your 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 tip, once started, keeps on. Sandford-on-Thames or the heart of Kennington: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Iffley or a forecourt in Kennington, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars mark which goes in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Radley? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Oxfordshire, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Kennington Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Kennington: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the BP or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive in Kennington, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction is where to leave when you are on the Wheatley Spur, under 10 miles from Kennington. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Kennington.
Kennington: what takes place when our engineers turn up
Our van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Kennington War Memorial, or outside St Swithun's CofE Primary School. The replies settle this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Kennington, for a moment
Kennington is a village in Oxfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Thames, approximately 2.5 miles south of Oxford. Kennington sits at an elevation of around 69 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Kennington is located near other villages such as Sandford-on-Thames, South Hinksey, and Littlemore, and is within commuting distance of London, about 50 miles away. Kennington has a population of around 1248 residents, making it a small but distinct community.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Kennington included
Over OX postcodes, the teams that cover Kennington — a village — work the nearby spots too, Littlemore and South Hinksey included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OX1 5.
The car stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Swithun's Church, a lay-by on the way to Under Woods, a drive. Guessing won't help at the back of Kennington Village Hall, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Kennington motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Oxfordshire.