How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in York Town
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. In York Town, finding it before the engine runs usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels around York Town and Camberley run, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around York Town?
It is hardly ever 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, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Laundry Lane before work, or in the car park at The Royal Swan on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange motor.
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 Blackwater or the middle of York Town, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in York Town or a driveway out in Frogmore. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Blackwater? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Surrey, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Terrace.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. 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.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around York Town already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Shell or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in York Town.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit means where to leave when you're on the M3, under 3 miles from York Town. A short hop across York Town is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive around York Town, what occurs?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Hawley Primary School, beside The Concrete Elephant or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those answers determine the work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters 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. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before we go, our engineers start it and check that it is running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our engineers are there. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About York Town and where it is
York Town is a suburban area in Surrey, situated lakeside at an elevation of 62 metres, with a mix of residential and recreational spaces. York Town lies approximately 30 miles southwest of central London, near the borders of several other suburban areas, including Blackwater and Hawley. York Town has a population of around 2010 people, predominantly residing in flat-type housing. York Town is also close to College Town, with which it shares some local amenities.
AdBlue drains round York Town, and Surrey beyond
Over GU postcodes, the teams covering York Town — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, College Town and Hawley among them. Quote a postcode beginning GU15 3, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Blackwater Park, a side street near Crossroads Evangelical Church: we drain the vehicle where it is. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Marks & Spencer.
For York Town drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.