Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Longcot: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands in Longcot, is normally all it takes if caught before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven about Longcot and Great Coxwell hold another fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Longcot: how it takes place
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off The Green before work, or in the car park outside The King & Queen heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
New-to-you vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
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 after it has started. It's seconds, whether in Fernham or right in the centre of Longcot.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Longcot or a driveway out in Uffington. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Swindon's car park, say — not once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Oxfordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Mallins Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and 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.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Longcot already?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump. At home in Longcot? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the car off. Longcot lies under 10 miles from the M4; on it, use the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Longcot.
Longcot: what happens when our technicians get there
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it by Longcot and Fernham Church of England Primary School, near St Mary the Virgin's or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out before you have heard the quote over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Longcot itself
Longcot is a small village in Oxfordshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 97 metres. Longcot lies within the South East region, approximately 17.7 miles from Oxford and 64 miles from London. Longcot is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and a population of around 614 residents. Longcot is surrounded by nearby villages such as Fernham, Little Coxwell, and Watchfield.
AdBlue drains around Longcot, and Oxfordshire beyond
Over SN postcodes, the vans covering Longcot — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Watchfield and Little Coxwell among them. Give a postcode that starts SN7 7, and our van gets there quickest.
Your car stays where it is. Anywhere it stands — beside Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, on a lay-by heading to The Green, at home — that's where it is emptied. Guessing won't help at the back of Saint John, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Longcot motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Oxfordshire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.