AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashill: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor hasn't run, it's drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle is in Ashill. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels driven about Ashill and Holme Hale hold a second fluid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ashill: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off The Green, or at The White Hart on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it in Saham Hills or right in the centre of Ashill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in North Pickenham or a forecourt in Ashill.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — at Harling Road's car park, say — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Norfolk — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Acacia Avenue on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Ashill?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, JET or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Ashill, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where the engine has run already, pull over safely and turn the car off. Leave the M11 — under 50 miles out of Ashill — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Ashill is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Norwich, so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Ashill
Wherever your car has stopped, whether by Ashill Voluntary Controlled Primary School, near Ashill Village Sign or at home, the van comes to it. Those answers settle this work and our price, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. The price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is drained. 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ashill
Ashill is a rural village in the Norfolk countryside, situated approximately 21 miles southwest of Norwich and 85 miles northeast of London. Ashill sits at an elevation of around 74 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and open farmland, with nearby places including Saham Hills and South Pickenham. Ashill has a population of around 988 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Ashill remains a quiet, residential community with a strong sense of rural identity.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Ashill included
As a rural village, Ashill shares its vans surrounding areas — Saham Toney, South Pickenham — all the way across IP postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting IP25 7.
Your car stays put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Ashill Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Goose Green, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Saint Nicholas.
In short, for Ashill motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Norfolk.