Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Townsend: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Townsend, finding it before your motor runs usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads around Townsend and Diggs carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Townsend: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a driveway off Rosemary Lane before work, or in the car park at The Rising Sun on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing 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 happens in Fort End or the middle of Townsend, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Townsend forecourt or a driveway out in Cuddington, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Haddenham & Thame Parkway.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across Buckinghamshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Churchway at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five stays out.
Townsend: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Gulf, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around Townsend? Then your car stays put.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M40 — under 10 miles out of Townsend — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Townsend is less a job than a run of under 15 miles to Oxford, and so tell us.
Townsend: what occurs when our technicians get there
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Haddenham Community Library, or by Haddenham Community Junior School. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. Nobody heads out before you have heard the quote over the phone.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Townsend
Townsend is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 83 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Townsend lies approximately 14 miles from Oxford and 39 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Townsend is surrounded by nearby places such as Fort End, Haddenham, and Church End, and has a population of around 1513 residents. Townsend is characterized by its quiet, residential atmosphere, with a mix of local amenities and rural surroundings.
AdBlue drains in Townsend and across Buckinghamshire
As a residential suburb, Townsend has the same vans as surrounding places — Haddenham, Church End — right across HP postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: give a HP17 8 postcode for the van.
Shifting the car is not needed. Anywhere it sits — beside The Mabel Parkinson Room, on a lay-by heading to Banks Park, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Haddenham Village Hall? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Townsend people
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Buckinghamshire.