Little Hungerford: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the car stands in Little Hungerford, is usually what it needs when caught before your engine runs. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Little Hungerford and Eling run, with diesel feeding your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Little Hungerford
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Colyer Close, or heading home in the car park at The Fox Inn.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Oare or the middle of Little Hungerford: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Little Hungerford or a drive over in Longlane. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at Newbury Racecourse's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across Berkshire — a routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never rushed by Orchard Close on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Little Hungerford?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your motor stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Long Lane Garage, BP or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car away when asked. Your own drive around Little Hungerford is where it should stay.
When the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the car off. On the M4, under a mile from Little Hungerford, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Little Hungerford is less a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Oxford, so say.
Little Hungerford: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Hermitage Primary School, near Chapel of Saint Bartholomew or on your own drive. The replies settle the work and the quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. After the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour after we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Little Hungerford itself
Little Hungerford is a small village in Berkshire, situated in the South East of England, with a population of around 1207 people. Little Hungerford sits at an elevation of 118 metres, approximately 49 miles from London and 20 miles from Oxford, in a rural area surrounded by nearby villages such as Oare and Hermitage. Little Hungerford is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its role as a residential community. Little Hungerford remains a quiet village with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Berkshire, Little Hungerford included
Hermitage and Wellhouse are among the towns around Little Hungerford, a rural village, that the same teams cover, throughout RG postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RG18 9.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Holy Trinity (Hermitage Parish Church), a lay-by on the way to Fence Wood, a driveway. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Grimsbury Hill Fort, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Little Hungerford people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Berkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.