Upton End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Upton End, is usually all it takes when found before your motor runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Shillington, like those in Upton End, run on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Upton End: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Upton End Road, or heading home in the car park at The Crown.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Upton End or out in Woodmer End.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt in Upton End or a drive over in Hanscombe End. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 Arlesey.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Bedfordshire, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed by Meppershall Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upton End already?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the F C Dawes & Son, the Power or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive around Upton End, leave it where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means where to come off if you are on the A1(M), under 10 miles from Upton End. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Upton End is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Milton Keynes — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Upton End, and what happens next
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Shillington Lower School, beside Shillington Village Hall or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers decide the work and our quote. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. 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 does not wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. The engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Upton End, briefly
Upton End is a small suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 58 metres. Upton End lies approximately 35.5 miles north of London and 17.1 miles southeast of Milton Keynes, near neighbouring areas such as Woodmer End and Bury End. Upton End is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development patterns of the region. Upton End has a population of around 740 residents, making it a relatively small community.
AdBlue drains around Upton End and across Bedfordshire
Being a residential suburb, Upton End has the same vans as surrounding places — Bury End, Hillfoot End — all the way through SG postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting SG5 3 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Spinney, a side street near Shillington Conregational Ghurch: we drain the car where it is. Guessing won't help behind All Saints Church, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
For Upton End drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Bedfordshire.