Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lidlington: Why It Occurs
Stop here a minute 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 flushed where the vehicle sits in Lidlington. 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 does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Lidlington and Marston Moretaine carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lidlington: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Whitehall, or heading home in the car park at The Green Man.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether in Bougton End or right in the centre of Lidlington.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Wood End or a forecourt in Lidlington, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Ask 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 the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Bedfordshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Lidlington?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs the pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Lidlington.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Lidlington lies under 3 miles from the M1; there, take the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lidlington.
When our technicians turn up in Lidlington, what takes place?
Outside Thomas Johnson Lower School, near Lidlington Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. No one sets off until you've had our price over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we go.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. 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 Lidlington
Lidlington is a village in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 83 metres, approximately 41 miles north of London. Lidlington lies near the towns of Milton Keynes and Bedford, with nearby villages including Bougton End, Millbrook, and Brogborough. Lidlington has a population of around 1300 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Lidlington is characterized by its rural setting and residential community.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Lidlington included
Lidlington is a rural village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Millbrook and Brogborough among them, across the MK postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a MK43 0 postcode to the van.
Moving your car isn't needed. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near Lidlington Church, or a lay-by towards Folly Wood. Assuming doesn't help behind Subtropical Swimming Paradise, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
For Lidlington people, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in Bedfordshire: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.