Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Park Barn: Why It Happens
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully purged where your car sits in Park Barn. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads round Park Barn and Onslow Village carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
There is a filler for each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Park Barn
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Southway Roundabout, or at The Bench on the way home after work.
New-to-you cars come next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Westborough or the middle of Park Barn, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Park Barn forecourt or a driveway over in Stoughton, take a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Guildford's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across Surrey, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Southway.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Park Barn?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Park Barn, leave it where it is.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the M3 — under 10 miles out of Park Barn — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Park Barn is smaller a job than a run of under 50 miles to Westminster, so say.
Park Barn: what occurs when we turn up
Outside Guildford Grove Primary School, near Park Barn Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since the answers settle the work and our price. The quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. Next our engineers start it and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Park Barn
Park Barn is a suburban area in Surrey, situated approximately 27 miles southwest of central London. Park Barn sits at an elevation of around 62 metres, near the neighbouring areas of Westborough and Rydeshill. Park Barn is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development patterns of the South East region. Park Barn remains a relatively small, yet distinct, community within the wider Surrey area.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Park Barn included
Park Barn is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Dennisville and Rydeshill among them, across the GU postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning GU2 8, and the van gets there fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near St Clare's, a lay-by on the way to Bannister's Field, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of Guildford Community Learning Centre, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For Park Barn motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in Surrey: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.