Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mortimer: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Mortimer. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels in Mortimer West End, like those in Mortimer, run on two liquids; the engine takes just the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Mortimer: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off King Street, or outside The Horse and Groom on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars are next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Summerlug or the middle of Mortimer, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Goddards Green or a forecourt in Mortimer.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 outside the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Berkshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and never rushed by Badgers Croft on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Mortimer already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or anywhere else. On your own drive around Mortimer? Then the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. Come off the M4 — under 5 miles out of Mortimer — at the next exit. A short hop across Mortimer is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Mortimer, and what occurs next
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Mortimer St. John's C.E. Infant School, near Mortimer Library or at home, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so we ask. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Mortimer
Mortimer is a village in Berkshire, situated in the inland countryside of South East England, with an elevation of around 96 metres. Mortimer lies approximately 41 miles west of London and 24 miles north of Winchester, near the smaller settlements of Summerlug and Four Houses Corner. Mortimer has a population of around 2323 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Mortimer is also closely associated with the nearby village of Stratfield Mortimer.
AdBlue drains around Mortimer, and Berkshire beyond
Throughout RG postcodes, our teams that cover Mortimer — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Stratfield Mortimer and Four Houses Corner included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting RG7 3.
No need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St John's Hall, a lay-by on the way to Mortimer Fairground, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint John The Evangelist.
For Mortimer motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, anywhere across Berkshire: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.