Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Turvey: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Turvey. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Turvey and Lavendon run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
Turvey: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off High Street, perhaps at The Three Cranes on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Turvey or out in Cold Brayfield.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Turvey forecourt or a drive out in Carlton, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bedford? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Bedfordshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush by Bamfords Yard on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Turvey?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Applegreen or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Turvey, leave it where it sits.
Already run? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means where to come off if you're on the M1, under 10 miles from Turvey. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Turvey.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Turvey
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Turvey Primary School, near Turvey Village Hall or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers decide this work and our quote. The price is given over the phone, 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, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Turvey
Turvey is a village in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse at an elevation of around 55 metres. Turvey lies approximately 49.9 miles north of London and 10 miles east of Milton Keynes, with nearby villages including Cold Brayfield and Newton Blossomville. Turvey has a population of around 931 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Turvey is surrounded by a rural landscape, with the Emmaus Village Carlton nearby.
Turvey and Bedfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over MK postcodes, our vans that cover Turvey — a village — work the nearby spots too, Emmaus Village Carlton and Newton Blossomville among them. Quickest of all: give a MK43 8 postcode for the van.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Walled Garden, a side street close to Turvey War Memorial: we drain it where it stands. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of All Saints'.
For Turvey drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Bedfordshire.