Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Oakley: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the car stands in Oakley, is normally all it takes when found before your motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Oakley and Kingston Blount run, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
Oakley: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Glimbers Grove, or heading home in the car park at The Wheatsheaf.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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 once it has started. Chinnor or the middle of Oakley: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Hempton Wainhill or a forecourt in Oakley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Princes Risborough? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Oxfordshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of St Andrew's Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Oakley already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the The Co-operative or the Murco, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. At home around Oakley? Then the vehicle remains put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Oakley sits under 3 miles from the M40; on it, take the first exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Oakley makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Oxford — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Oakley, what happens?
The van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Chinnor Methodist Church, or by St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, Chinnor. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those answers settle this work and the quote. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out unaided, however long it is left. Filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. Before leaving, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it's running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Oakley, briefly
Oakley is a suburban area in Oxfordshire, situated near the lakeside and surrounded by rolling countryside. Oakley sits at an elevation of 118 metres, approximately 15 miles from Oxford and 36 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Oakley has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most predominant, and its population is around 5253 residents. Oakley is close to nearby places such as Chinnor, Crowell, and Lower Wainhill, which adds to its appeal as a residential area.
AdBlue drains around Oakley, and Oxfordshire beyond
Throughout OX postcodes, the teams that cover Oakley — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Lower Wainhill and Crowell included. A postcode starting OX39 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Chinnor Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Greenwood Park, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Chinnor Library, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Oakley motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Oxfordshire.