Shipton-under-Wychwood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Shipton-under-Wychwood, finding it before the motor runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads round Shipton-under-Wychwood and Lyneham carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Shipton-under-Wychwood?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off St Michaels Close, perhaps outside The Wychwood Inn on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Shipton-under-Wychwood or out in Milton-under-Wychwood.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Shipton-under-Wychwood or a drive out in Ascott-under-Wychwood. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many cars mark what goes in each filler just there.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Shipton's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Oxfordshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Gorton Playne.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Shipton-under-Wychwood?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Milton Service Station, the Gulf or somewhere else. Your own driveway around Shipton-under-Wychwood is where it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M40, under 25 miles from Shipton-under-Wychwood, that means the next junction. A short hop across Shipton-under-Wychwood is a smaller job than a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there around Shipton-under-Wychwood, what takes place?
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Wychwood Church of England Primary School, beside New Beaconsfield Hall or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the replies set the work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Shipton-under-Wychwood itself
Shipton-under-Wychwood is a village in Oxfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Evenlode at an elevation of 107 metres. Shipton-under-Wychwood lies near the market town of Chipping Norton and is surrounded by other small villages such as Milton-under-Wychwood and Ascott Earl. Shipton-under-Wychwood has a population of approximately 646 residents and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Shipton-under-Wychwood is located 16.5 miles from Oxford and 67.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Shipton-under-Wychwood included
Over OX postcodes, the teams that cover Shipton-under-Wychwood — a village — work the nearby locations too, Upper Milton and Ascott Earl included. Give a postcode that starts OX7 6, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a street near Saint Mary the Virgin, or a lay-by towards Wychwood wild garden. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Milton Village Hall, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
For Shipton-under-Wychwood motorists, the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Oxfordshire.