AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Ascot: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where your vehicle is in North Ascot. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around North Ascot and Winkfield Row carry, with diesel for the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in North Ascot: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Fernbank Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a 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, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Chavey Down or the middle of North Ascot: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Martins Heron or a forecourt around North Ascot, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Ascot, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Berkshire — a routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Barkers Meadow at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in North Ascot?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Murco, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around North Ascot, leave it where it sits.
When the motor has been run already, stop safely and turn it off. On the M3, under 5 miles from North Ascot, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across North Ascot is a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Westminster — so say about how far it went.
North Ascot: what occurs when our engineers arrive
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Ascot Heath Primary School, near Ascot Heath Library or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The replies determine the work and our price, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and your system flushed 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About North Ascot itself
North Ascot is a village in Berkshire, situated near the River Thames and surrounded by nearby places such as Chavey Down and Brookside. North Ascot sits at an elevation of 82 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. North Ascot is located approximately 25 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly village. North Ascot has a population of around 3144 residents, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains about North Ascot, and Berkshire beyond
Being a village, North Ascot shares its vans surrounding areas — Brookside, Ascot — right across SL postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting SL5 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near Chapel of St Mary and St John, or a layby towards Blythewood Wildlife Heritage Site. Assuming doesn't help behind Ascot Life Church, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
North Ascot drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, anywhere around Berkshire: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.