AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newtown: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your car stands around Newtown, is normally what it needs when found before the motor 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 does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Newtown and Harpsden Bottom carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Newtown?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Western Avenue before work, or in the car park at The Three Horseshoes on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a new vehicle.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. It takes seconds, whether in Harpsden Heights or right in the centre of Newtown.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Remenham Hill or a forecourt around Newtown.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Henley-On-Thames, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Oxfordshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Boston Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Newtown?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the BP or somewhere else. At home around Newtown? So your car stays put.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the A404(M), under 10 miles from Newtown. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Newtown makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Oxford — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Newtown, and what takes place next
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Church of the Sacred Heart, or outside Trinity Church of England Primary School. Those replies determine this work and our quote, so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. On the call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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 does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Newtown and where it is
Newtown is a suburban area in Oxfordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 41 metres. Newtown lies near the town of Henley-on-Thames and the villages of Harpsden and Harpsden Heights, within commuting distance of Oxford. Newtown has a population of approximately 5305 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Newtown is located 33.3 miles from London, making it a potential base for those working in the capital.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Newtown included
Being a new town, Newtown has the same vans as surrounding areas — Harpsden, Henley-on-Thames — right through RG postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting RG9 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays where it is. Anywhere it sits — near YMCA, in a lay-by heading to The Henley Wildlife Group, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help behind Redgrave and Pinsent, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Newtown motorists
Always, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in Oxfordshire.