Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Overstone Lodge
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Overstone Lodge. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels around Ecton Brook, as well as Overstone Lodge, carry on two fluids; the engine takes only your diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Overstone Lodge: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Dore Close, or on the way home in the car park at The Gallery.
New-to-you cars are next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Goldings or the heart of Overstone Lodge: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Southfields or a forecourt around Overstone Lodge, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Northampton.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Northamptonshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Marshleys Court.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Overstone Lodge: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Esso or another — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Overstone Lodge.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M1, under 10 miles from Overstone Lodge, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Overstone Lodge is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Milton Keynes — so say roughly how far it went.
Overstone Lodge: what happens when we turn up
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it by Blackthorn Primary School, near Arlbury road Community Hub or at home, the van comes to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and quote. No one sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. Filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Overstone Lodge, for a moment
Overstone Lodge is a suburban area in Northamptonshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 105 metres. Overstone Lodge lies approximately 60 miles northwest of London and is close to the nearby city of Milton Keynes, which is about 16 miles away. Overstone Lodge is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and is near other local places such as Goldings, Blackthorn, and Rectory Farm. Overstone Lodge has a population of around 7741 residents.
AdBlue drains about Overstone Lodge, and Northamptonshire beyond
Being a residential suburb, Overstone Lodge has the same vans as surrounding places — Blackthorn, Rectory Farm — all the way across NN postcodes and the wider area around them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NN3 8.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Rectory Farm Community Centre, or a layby on the way to Dryleys Park. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Community Room? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
For Overstone Lodge people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Northamptonshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.