AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Littleworth: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Littleworth, catching it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Littleworth and Forest Hill run, with diesel for the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Littleworth
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Littleworth Road, or at New Club on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, be it in Wheatley or bang in the centre of Littleworth.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Cuddesdon or a forecourt in Littleworth.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Oxford's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is in Oxfordshire — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Keydale Road at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Littleworth?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Horspath Service Centre or the Asda, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Littleworth is where it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is the place to leave if you're on the Wheatley Spur, under 3 miles from Littleworth. Distance counts — a quick hop across Littleworth makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Oxford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive around Littleworth
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Wheatley Church of England Primary School, close to Wheatley War Memorial or on your own driveway. We ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine this work and the quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. 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 counts more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Littleworth, briefly
Littleworth is a small village in Oxfordshire, situated approximately 4.6 miles from Oxford and 46.8 miles from London. Littleworth sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 92 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Wheatley, Holton, and Horspath. Littleworth has a population of around 937 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Littleworth included
Holton and Horspath are among the towns around Littleworth, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over OX postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OX33 1.
No need to move the vehicle. Wherever it sits — beside Saint Mary The Virgin, in a lay-by en route to The Common, at home — that is where it is cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Wheatley Library? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Littleworth motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Oxfordshire.