Wolverton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Wolverton, finding it before your engine turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Wolverton and Stonebridge run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wolverton: how it takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 drive off Stratford Road before work, or in the car park outside The Craufurd Arms on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap 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 tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, be it in Old Wolverton or bang in the centre of Wolverton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Hodge Lea or a forecourt around Wolverton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Buckinghamshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Anson Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Wolverton?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your engine stays unstarted. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Essar, Tesco or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Wolverton.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. The next exit is the place to come off if you're on the M1, under 5 miles from Wolverton. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Wolverton is smaller work than a trip of under 5 miles to Milton Keynes, so say.
Our arrival around Wolverton, and what happens next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Wyvern School, near Faith Dimensions Ministries or at home, our van comes to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the answers decide this work and our quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Wolverton and where it is
Wolverton is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse at an elevation of around 80 metres. Wolverton lies approximately 3 miles from Milton Keynes and 48 miles northwest of London, with its riverside setting influencing the local landscape. Wolverton has a mix of housing types, but terraced houses are predominant in the area. Wolverton is close to nearby places such as Old Wolverton and Greenleys, and is home to around 6260 residents.
Wolverton and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Greenleys and Wolverton Mill East are among the places around Wolverton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout MK postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting MK12 5.
The vehicle stays where it is. Anywhere it sits — beside St Francis De Sales Church, in a lay-by en route to Western Road Recreation Ground, at home — that is where it is emptied. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Wolverton Swimming and Fitness Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Wolverton motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Buckinghamshire.