AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Princes Risborough: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. In Princes Risborough, finding it before your engine turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Princes Risborough and Whiteleaf carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Princes Risborough
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Duke Street before work, or in the car park outside The Whiteleaf Cross on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the 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, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's a few seconds, be it out in Alscot or bang in the heart of Princes Risborough.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Askett or a forecourt in Princes Risborough.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Buckinghamshire, use this routine.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Church Street on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Princes Risborough?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Shell or another — the attendants will usually help push the car away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Princes Risborough, leave the car where it sits.
When your motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. Princes Risborough lies under 10 miles from the M40; on it, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Princes Risborough.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Princes Risborough
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Princes Risborough Primary School, close to Stage Plus or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Princes Risborough itself
Princes Risborough is a town in Buckinghamshire, situated in the Chiltern Hills at an elevation of 111 metres. Princes Risborough lies approximately 33.7 miles west of London and 18.3 miles southeast of Oxford, with nearby villages including Alscot, Monks Risborough, and Horsenden. Princes Risborough has a population of around 8186 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Princes Risborough is a typical example of a South East England town, with a mix of old and new buildings.
AdBlue drains across Buckinghamshire, Princes Risborough included
Being a town, Princes Risborough has the same vans as nearby places — Monks Risborough, Horsenden — all the way across HP postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: quote a HP27 0 postcode to our van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street near I Am The Way, or a lay-by towards Princes Risborough Lawn Bowls Club. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Scholastica's Retreat.
For Princes Risborough drivers, the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever in Buckinghamshire: keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.