Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Willington: Why It Happens
Keep the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Willington. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels in Great Barford, like those in Willington, carry on two fluids; your engine takes only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
Willington: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
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 driveway off Station Road before work, or in the car park outside The Crown on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a strange motor.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. Cople or the heart of Willington: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Willington forecourt or a drive over in Chapel End, spend a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what goes in which filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Bedford St Johns's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Bedfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Chapel Lane.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Willington?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Tesco, JET or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car clear if you ask. At home around Willington? Then your car remains put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the A1(M), under 15 miles from Willington. A short hop across Willington is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Willington, and what takes place next
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside Sheerhatch Primary School, near Willington Methodist Church or on your own drive, the van travels to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those replies determine this work and the price. No one sets off before you've had our price over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. After the filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Willington
Willington is a village in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse at an elevation of around 26 metres. Willington lies within the Eastern region of England, approximately 44.8 miles north of London and 17.4 miles southeast of Milton Keynes. Willington is characterised by its detached housing and rural setting, with nearby places including Cople, Water End, and Workhouse End.
Willington and Bedfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Willington has the same vans as surrounding places — Water End, Workhouse End — right across MK postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting MK44 3.
The car stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Danish Camp, a lay-by on the way to Willington Woods, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Peace Memorial Hall.
Willington motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Bedfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.