AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingsdown: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Kingsdown. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Kingsdown and Stratton St Margaret carry, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kingsdown: how it occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Hyde Road, or heading home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a strange vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Kingsdown or out in Upper Stratton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Pinehurst or a forecourt in Kingsdown.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Swindon.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in Wiltshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Birdbrook Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kingsdown already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive around Kingsdown, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M4, under 5 miles from Kingsdown, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Kingsdown makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Oxford — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there in Kingsdown
Wherever the car came to rest, whether outside St Catherine's Catholic Primary School, Swindon, beside Upper Stratton Public Library or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run, because the answers settle this work and our quote. During the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Kingsdown itself
Kingsdown is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 116 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Kingsdown lies approximately 24 miles from Oxford and 70 miles from London, placing it within commuting distance of these major cities. Kingsdown is surrounded by other residential areas, including Upper Stratton, Penhill, and Groundwell, and has a population of around 4505 residents. Kingsdown forms part of the wider urban area in the South West region of England.
AdBlue drains in Kingsdown and across Wiltshire
Kingsdown is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Penhill and Groundwell among them, across the SN postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a SN2 7 postcode for the van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street near Kingsdown School Sports Centre, a lay-by on the way to Nalgo Sports & Leisure, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Philip the Deacon Church.
The short version for Kingsdown drivers
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.