Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Matthewsgreen
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not run, it is drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits around Matthewsgreen. Here before the event? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels driven about Matthewsgreen and Dowlesgreen hold another liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. It's in that gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Matthewsgreen?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Cantley Crescent before work, or in the car park outside The Dog & Duck on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a strange vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Emmbrook or the heart of Matthewsgreen: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Chapel Green or a forecourt in Matthewsgreen.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Wokingham.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Berkshire, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Martins Drive.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Matthewsgreen already?
Short order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Shell, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away when asked. On your own drive around Matthewsgreen? So the vehicle stays where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. The next exit is where to leave when you are on the A329(M), under a mile from Matthewsgreen. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Matthewsgreen.
Matthewsgreen: what happens when we get there
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Wokingham Theatre, or by St Cecilia's CofE Primary School. Those replies determine the work and our quote, so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once the 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 that matters more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. The motor is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Matthewsgreen, for a moment
Matthewsgreen is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated near the River Loddon and close to the towns of Wokingham and Emmbrook. Matthewsgreen sits at an elevation of 53 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Matthewsgreen is located near the outskirts of Wokingham, within commuting distance of Oxford and London. Matthewsgreen has a population of approximately 3852 residents.
Matthewsgreen and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Wokingham and Woosehill are among the places around Matthewsgreen, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout RG postcodes. A postcode starting RG41 1 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Cantley Recreation Ground, a lay-by on the way to Holt Copse, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Wokingham Bowling Club? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Matthewsgreen drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever around Berkshire: switch it off and ring 0333 366 0103.