Watermead: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if your engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car is in Watermead. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Watermead and Aylesbury carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
Watermead: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Watermeadow before work, or in the car park outside Aeglesburgh @ the Watermead Inn on the way home.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Elmhurst or the middle of Watermead: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Watermead forecourt or a driveway out in Broughton Crossing, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Aylesbury? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is across Buckinghamshire — a routine to follow.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Ayleswater.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your 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 runs dry; until then, tip gently using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Watermead?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Kindell Motors Ltd., BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the vehicle away if asked. If you are on your own driveway around Watermead, leave the vehicle where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the M40, under 15 miles from Watermead. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Watermead.
Watermead: what happens when we turn up
Outside St Louis Catholic Primary School, near Alfred Rose Park Community Centre or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers decide the work and our quote, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. Nobody heads out until you've heard our price by phone.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away on its own, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it is running correctly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Watermead and where it is
Watermead is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 77 metres. Watermead lies near the cities of Milton Keynes and Aylesbury, and is within commuting distance of London, being approximately 36.7 miles from the capital. Watermead is characterised by its terraced housing and is surrounded by nearby places such as Elmhurst and Bierton. Watermead has a population of around 4123 residents.
Watermead and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Watermead shares its vans surrounding areas — Manor Park, Bierton — all the way across HP postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a HP19 0 postcode for our van.
Your car remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Alfred Rose Park, a side street near Buckingham Park Community Centre: our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bierton: St James the Great, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Watermead motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Buckinghamshire.