Wootton: 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 the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits in Wootton, is normally all it needs when found before your motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Wootton and Keeley Green carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Wootton?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Cause End Road, or outside Fox and Duck on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. Bott End or the middle of Wootton: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Wootton or a drive over in Hall End. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a rental or company car — from Kempston Hardwick's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Bedfordshire, use this routine.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Bedford Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Wootton?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Murco, BP or any forecourt will normally help pushing your car clear when you ask. At home in Wootton? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Where your motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. Wootton lies under 10 miles from the M1; on it, use the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Wootton makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Milton Keynes — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Wootton, and what takes place next
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by Wootton Primary School, near Wootton Baptist Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it is left. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take about half an hour after we are there. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Wootton, briefly
Wootton is a village in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 39 metres, with a mix of old and new housing including many detached homes. Wootton lies near several smaller settlements, such as Bott End and Church End, and is close to the larger urban centre of Milton Keynes. Wootton is also within commuting distance of London, being around 44 miles from the capital. Wootton has a population of approximately 4643 residents.
AdBlue drains around Wootton and across Bedfordshire
Mount Pleasant and Church End are among the places near Wootton, a rural village, that the same vans cover, throughout MK postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting MK43 9.
The vehicle remains where it is. Wherever it stands — near Wootton Library, on a layby heading to Van Diemen's Land, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Tricky to explain, like the back of Wootton Methodist Church? By a border? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
The short version for Wootton drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Bedfordshire.