Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Merefield
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Merefield, catching it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Merefield and Far Cotton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Merefield: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Hobby Close before work, or in the car park at Woodys heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. It's seconds, be it out in Blacky More or bang in the heart of Merefield.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Merefield forecourt or a drive over in Camp Hill, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Northampton.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is around Northamptonshire — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Peregrine Place.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Merefield?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Tesco, Shell or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle clear when asked. At home in Merefield? Then the vehicle stays put.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. The next junction means the place to leave when you're on the M1, under a mile from Merefield. A short hop across Merefield is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Merefield: what takes place when we turn up
By Simon de Senlis Primary School, near Danes Camp or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is drained. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Merefield and where it is
Merefield is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Northamptonshire, with an elevation of around 97 metres. Merefield lies near several smaller places, including Blacky More, Shelfleys, and Briar Hill, and is approximately 13 miles from Milton Keynes. Merefield has a population of around 4450 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Merefield is also within commuting distance of London, at about 59 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Merefield and across Northamptonshire
Being a residential suburb, Merefield has the same vans as nearby areas — Shelfleys, Briar Hill — right across NN postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NN4 0.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Hunsbury Library, a lay-by on the way to Grangewood Park, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Ss. Francis & Therese Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Merefield drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Northamptonshire.