Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bacton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bacton. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Bacton and Walcott carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the error lives.
Bacton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Walcott Road before work, or in the car park at Poachers Pocket heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. Whether it occurs in Broomholm or the middle of Bacton, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Bacton or a driveway out in Witton Bridge. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars show which belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside North Walsham.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever across Norfolk, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Abbey Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bacton?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive around Bacton, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Bacton sits over 50 miles from the M11; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Bacton is a smaller job than a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Bacton
By Bacton Primary School, near Bacton Bromholm & Keswick Village Sign or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. The answers settle the work and our quote, and so we ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. On the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bacton itself
Bacton is a small coastal village in Norfolk, situated near the towns of Broomholm and Keswick, with Bacton itself lying at an elevation of around 7 metres above sea level. Bacton has a population of approximately 593 residents, with Bacton being characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Bacton is located near the larger city of Norwich, which is about 17 miles away, and Bacton is also within a reasonable distance of London, at around 115 miles to the southwest.
Bacton and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Keswick and Pollard Street are among the places near Bacton, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over NR postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NR12 0.
The vehicle stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Cubitt Memorial Playing Field, a side street near Bacton Village Hall: our technicians drain it where it sits. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Beacon Community Church.
Bacton drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Norfolk.