Stevington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Stevington, finding it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Stevington and Bury End run, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Stevington
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Court Lane, perhaps outside The Red Lion on the way home that evening.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in West End or the middle of Stevington, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Stevington or a driveway out in Bromham. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Bedford? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Bedfordshire, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Silver Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stevington?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many 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 your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at BP, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Stevington.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next junction means where to leave when you're on the M1, under 10 miles from Stevington. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Stevington is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles to Milton Keynes, so say.
When our technicians get there around Stevington, what occurs?
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Oakley Primary Academy, beside Stevington Village Hall or at home, our van travels to it. The answers settle the work and the quote, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. After the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Stevington and where it is
Stevington is a small village in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse at an elevation of around 48 metres. Stevington lies near the villages of West End, Oakley, and Pavenham, and is approximately 12 miles from Milton Keynes. Stevington has a population of around 582 people, with a predominance of detached housing. Stevington is also within commuting distance of London, being around 49 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Stevington included
Oakley and Pavenham are among the towns near Stevington, a village, that the same teams cover, over MK postcodes. A postcode starting MK43 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving your car isn't needed. Wherever it sits — beside St Mary the Virgin, on a layby en route to Manor House Garden, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Stevington Baptist Church.
Stevington people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere around Bedfordshire: switch it off and ring 0333 366 0103.