How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southcombe
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Southcombe. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Southcombe and Over Norton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Southcombe?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Priory Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Southcombe or out in Heythrop.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Southcombe or a drive out in Chipping Norton. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Charlbury, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Oxfordshire, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside London Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Southcombe?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the Esso or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Southcombe.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M40 — under 15 miles out of Southcombe — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Southcombe makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Oxford — so say about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in Southcombe
Wherever the car has stopped, whether by Holy Trinity Catholic School, Chipping Norton, beside Fairytale Farm or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next we start the car and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Southcombe, for a moment
Southcombe is a small hamlet in Oxfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 208 metres, and is located near the villages of Heythrop and Old Chalford. Southcombe is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Southcombe sits within the wider countryside of the South East region, approximately 17 miles from Oxford and 66 miles from London. Southcombe remains a quiet, residential community with a population of around 571 people.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Southcombe included
Old Chalford and Dunthrop are among the places around Southcombe, a rural hamlet, that the same vans cover, over OX postcodes. Quickest of all: give a OX7 5 postcode to the van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Wherever it stands — beside St Nicholas, in a layby heading to Chipping Norton Golf Club, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
The short version for Southcombe drivers
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, wherever around Oxfordshire: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.