How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southend
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Southend, finding it before your motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many newer diesels seen around Southend and Stanford Dingley carry another liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together under one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, again and again. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Southend?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Heath Road before work, or in the car park at The Queens Head heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: a new car.
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 tip after it has started. Whether it happens in Tutts Clump or the middle of Southend, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Southend forecourt or a drive out in Jennetts Hill, spend a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Aldermaston? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Berkshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of South End Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Southend?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, BP or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away when asked. On your own drive in Southend? Then your car remains put.
When the motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch it off. Leave the M4 — under 3 miles out of Southend — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Southend.
Our arrival in Southend, and what takes place next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Bradfield C.E. Primary School, near St Peter's Church or on your own drive. Those answers decide the work and the price, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Southend and where it is
Southend is a small village in Berkshire, situated on the banks of the River Thames at an elevation of around 96 metres. Southend sits in a rural area, with nearby villages including Tutts Clump, Beenham Stocks, and Beenham, and is located approximately 22.7 miles from Oxford. Southend has a population of around 707 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Berkshire, Southend included
Southend is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Beenham Stocks and Beenham among them, across the RG postcode area. Fastest of all: give a RG7 6 postcode for the van.
Your car does not need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Bradfield Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Ridge's Belt, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Beenham Victory Hall? By a border? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Southend people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere in Berkshire.