AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Adderbury: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands in West Adderbury, is normally what it takes when found before your motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels in Milton, as well as West Adderbury, carry on two fluids; your engine gets only your diesel. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in West Adderbury
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Cross Hill Road before work, or in the car park outside The Bell Inn on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand goes 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, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it takes place in Adderbury or the middle of West Adderbury, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt in West Adderbury or a drive out in Bodicote. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — at Kings Sutton's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Oxfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Horn Hill Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in West Adderbury?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the BP, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in West Adderbury.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M40 — under 3 miles out of West Adderbury — at the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across West Adderbury makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Oxford — so say about how far it went.
West Adderbury: what happens when we arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Christopher Rawlins Church of England Primary School, close to Quaker Meeting House or on your own driveway. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide both work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. That is why it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About West Adderbury itself
West Adderbury is a locality situated on the banks of a river in Oxfordshire, with an elevation of around 102 metres. West Adderbury lies near the town of Adderbury and is also close to East Adderbury and Twyford, and is approximately 18.5 miles from Oxford. West Adderbury has a population of around 823 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. West Adderbury is located in the South East region, about 62.1 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, West Adderbury included
Being a small village, West Adderbury shares its vans surrounding areas — East Adderbury, Twyford — right across OX postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting OX17 3.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street near Saint George, a lay-by on the way to Colin Butler Green, a driveway. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Banbury West End Lawn Tennis & Squash Club, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
For West Adderbury drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Oxfordshire.