Onley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car sits around Onley, is normally all it needs if caught before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven round Onley and Dunchurch hold a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Onley: how it takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Daventry Road, or on the way home in the car park at the pub in the village.
New-to-you motors are second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, be it out in Woolscott or right in the centre of Onley.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Onley forecourt or a drive over in Hillmorton Paddock, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Rugby, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Northamptonshire, follow this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Lodge Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Onley already?
Brief order, then. First: your motor remains off. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsburys or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Onley.
Where the engine has run by now, stop safely and turn the car off. Onley sits under a mile from the M45; on it, use the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Onley is less a job than a run of under 15 miles to Coventry, and so say.
Onley: what occurs when our engineers get there
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Onley Grounds Equestrian Complex, or outside Barby Church of England Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it sits. After the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Onley
Onley is a village in Northamptonshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 90 metres. Onley lies near the towns of Rugby and Daventry, and is close to the nearby villages of Woolscott, Barby, and Willoughby. Onley has a population of approximately 803 residents, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Onley is located about 12 miles from Coventry and around 74 miles northwest of London.
Onley and Northamptonshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Onley is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Barby and Willoughby among them, across the CV postcode area. A postcode starting CV23 8 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Willoughby Cricket Club, a side street near St Nicholas: our engineers drain the car where it is. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Willoughby Village Hall.
Onley motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Northamptonshire.