Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leighton Buzzard: Why It Occurs
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car is in Leighton Buzzard. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels in Grove, as well as Leighton Buzzard, run on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler for each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Leighton Buzzard?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Market Square before work, or in the car park at The Top Bell on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Leighton Buzzard or out in Linslade.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Rushmere or a forecourt around Leighton Buzzard.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever around Bedfordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside High Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Leighton Buzzard: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the Morrisons or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Leighton Buzzard.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. Leave the M1 — under 10 miles out of Leighton Buzzard — at the next exit. A short hop across Leighton Buzzard is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Leighton Buzzard, what takes place?
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Market Cross, or outside The Mary Bassett Lower School. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one sets off before you've heard our price over the phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. Then our technicians start the engine and check it runs properly before leaving.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late 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; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Leighton Buzzard and where it is
Leighton Buzzard is a town in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse at an elevation of around 95 metres. Leighton Buzzard lies approximately 36 miles northwest of London and is close to the neighbouring towns of Linslade and Milton Keynes. Leighton Buzzard has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent. Leighton Buzzard is also near the smaller settlements of Leedon and Old Linslade.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Leighton Buzzard included
Leighton Buzzard is a riverside town, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Leedon and Old Linslade among them, across the LU postcode area. Quickest of all: give a LU7 1 postcode for the van.
No need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Parsons Close Recreation Ground, a side street near British Legion: our engineers drain it where it stands. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Leighton Buzzard Theatre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Leighton Buzzard people
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever across Bedfordshire: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.