Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southcote: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Southcote. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads about Southcote and Reading carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Southcote
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Southcote Lane before work, or in the car park outside Spread Eagle on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new motor.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, carries on. It takes seconds, be it in Horncastle or right in the centre of Southcote.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Southcote forecourt or a driveway out in Calcot Row, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Reading West, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is across Berkshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Silchester Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Both behind one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Southcote: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Esso, BP or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car clear if you ask. Your own drive in Southcote is the place it stays.
Where your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Leave the M4 — under 3 miles out of Southcote — at 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 Southcote.
Southcote: what happens when our engineers turn up
By Southcote Primary School, near Grange United Reform Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set the work and quote. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Southcote
Southcote is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated on the banks of the River Kennet at an elevation of 46 metres. Southcote lies within the wider Reading urban area, near neighbouring communities such as Horncastle and Churchend. Southcote is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and riverside setting, with Oxford located approximately 24 miles to the northwest. Southcote is also within commuting distance of London, which is around 38 miles to the east.
Southcote and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Southcote shares its vans nearby places — Churchend, Coley — right through RG postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning RG30 3, and the van gets there fastest.
The car stays put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Matthew's, a lay-by on the way to Coronation Square, a drive. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Southcote Library, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Southcote motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Berkshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.