Wick Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Wick Hill, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels around Ravenswood Village Settlement, as well as Wick Hill, run on two fluids; your engine gets only the diesel. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wick Hill: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Heath Ride before work, or in the car park outside The Queens Oak heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 pour once it has started. The Ridges or the heart of Wick Hill: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Wick Hill or a driveway out in Heathlands. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of 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. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Crowthorne? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Berkshire, use this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Kiln Ride Extension.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wick Hill?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Pace, the Tesco or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Wick Hill.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Wick Hill lies under 5 miles from the A329(M); there, take the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Wick Hill is a smaller job than heading under 50 miles towards Winchester — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Wick Hill: what occurs when we arrive
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside California Ratepayers Hall, or by Nine Mile Ride Primary School. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those replies set the work and quote. Nobody sets off until you've heard our quote over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before leaving, we fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Wick Hill and where it is
Wick Hill is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 84 metres, and is located approximately 32 miles from London. Wick Hill comprises predominantly detached housing and is near to other residential areas such as The Ridges and Finchampstead. Wick Hill is also close to the settlement of The Throat and the city of Winchester, which is about 30 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Wick Hill, and Berkshire beyond
Wick Hill is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Finchampstead and The Throat among them, across the RG postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RG40 3.
The vehicle stays put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to FBC Centre, a lay-by on the way to Warren Wood, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Finchampstead Library? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Wick Hill motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Berkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.