Tattenhoe Park: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Tattenhoe Park, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Tattenhoe Park and Oxley Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Tattenhoe Park: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car 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 driveway off Verne Grove before work, or in the car park at Prince George on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in Kingsmead or the middle of Tattenhoe Park, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Emerson Valley or a forecourt around Tattenhoe Park.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Bletchley.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Buckinghamshire that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Priestley Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tattenhoe Park?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, BP or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. On your own drive in Tattenhoe Park? So the car remains put.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M1 — under 10 miles out of Tattenhoe Park — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tattenhoe Park.
Tattenhoe Park: what occurs when our technicians get there
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether by Priory Rise School, near St. Giles’ Church or at home, our van travels to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the replies decide both work and quote. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, we start the engine and make sure that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tattenhoe Park and where it is
Tattenhoe Park is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated approximately 4 miles west of Milton Keynes and 44 miles northwest of London. Tattenhoe Park sits at an elevation of around 116 metres, characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Tattenhoe Park is located near other residential areas, including Kingsmead, Tattenhoe, and Westcroft, and has a population of around 1012 residents.
Tattenhoe Park and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Tattenhoe Park shares its vans nearby places — Tattenhoe, Westcroft — all the way across MK postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting MK4 4.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a side street close to Tattenhoe Pavilion: we drain it where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Snelshall Priory? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
For Tattenhoe Park motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Buckinghamshire.