Uffington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Uffington. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads round Uffington and Kingston Lisle carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Uffington: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Upper Common Lane before work, or in the car park at The Fox and Hounds on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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. It takes seconds, whether out in Baulking or bang in the heart of Uffington.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Fernham or a forecourt in Uffington, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Ask 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 at Swindon.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in Oxfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed by Hillview on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Uffington already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, Mellors of Challow or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear if you ask. On your own drive in Uffington? So the vehicle remains where it is.
When your motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. The next junction means where to leave when you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Uffington. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Uffington is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Oxford, so say.
Uffington: what takes place when we arrive
Outside Uffington Church of England Primary School, close to Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and your system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then our engineers start it and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Uffington and where it is
Uffington is a small village in south Oxfordshire, situated in a rural area near the Vale of White Horse. Uffington sits at an elevation of around 90 metres, with the village centre surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby settlements like Baulking and Woolstone. Uffington has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is located approximately 16 miles from Oxford. Uffington remains a quiet, residential community with a population of around 851 people.
Uffington and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a rural village, Uffington has the same vans as nearby areas — Woolstone, Fawler — all the way through SN postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts SN7 7, and the van gets there fastest.
The car stays put. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road by John Betjeman, or a lay-by towards Uffington Gorse. Guessing won't help behind Tom Brown's School Museum, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Uffington drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Oxfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.