Banham: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't run, it is emptied and fully cleaned where your vehicle is in Banham. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but many newer diesels driven round Banham and Dam Brigg hold another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Banham
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Church Hill, or on the way home in the car park at The Banham Barrel.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. Whether it takes place in Hunts Corner or the middle of Banham, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Banham forecourt or a driveway out in Cake Street, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Eccles Road? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Norfolk, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Green, not on a slope, not with the 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 silly and it works.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Banham?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Sainsbury's or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive around Banham, leave the car where it is.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. Banham lies under 50 miles from the M11; there, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Banham is less work than a run of under 25 miles towards Norwich, so say.
Our arrival around Banham, and what occurs next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Banham Primary School, near Banham Village Sign or on your own drive. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and check that it's running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Banham itself
Banham is a village in the English county of Norfolk, situated inland at an elevation of 47 metres. Banham lies approximately 16 miles southwest of Norwich and 82 miles northeast of London, within a rural landscape of arable farmland and woodland. Banham has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is surrounded by smaller settlements like Hunts Corner and Park Common. Banham remains a small, quiet community with a population of around 1240 people.
AdBlue drains around Banham, and Norfolk beyond
Throughout NR postcodes, our teams covering Banham — a rural village — work the nearby locations too, Ragmere and Park Common included. Quickest of all: quote a NR16 2 postcode to the van.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Kenninghall Wood, a side street close to Saint Mary's: we drain it where it sits. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Banham Community Centre.
For Banham drivers, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Norfolk.