How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Hartwell
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car is around Upper Hartwell. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — but many current diesels driven around Upper Hartwell and Upton hold another fluid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Upper Hartwell
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
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 Round Hill before work, or in the car park at Rose and Crown on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it 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. Whether it happens in Stone or the middle of Upper Hartwell, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt around Upper Hartwell or a drive out in Bishopstone. A few seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Aylesbury's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is in Buckinghamshire — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chiltern Avenue, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Hartwell?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Spot Fuel or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Upper Hartwell.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the M40, under 10 miles from Upper Hartwell. A short hop across Upper Hartwell is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Upper Hartwell, and what happens next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Stone Church of England Combined School, close to St John the Baptist or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Upper Hartwell
Upper Hartwell is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 105 metres. Upper Hartwell lies near the villages of Stone and Lower Hartwell, and is also close to Sedrup, with Milton Keynes being the nearest city. Upper Hartwell is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is home to a population of approximately 1640 residents. Upper Hartwell is located about 37.4 miles from London, making it a commuter base for those working in the capital.
Upper Hartwell and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Upper Hartwell is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Lower Hartwell and Sedrup among them, across the HP postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting HP17 8.
The car remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to War Memorial Recreation Ground, a side street near Stone Village Hall: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing won't help at the back of Church of St Mary, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Upper Hartwell motorists
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever around Buckinghamshire: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.