Bar Hill: 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 your engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Bar Hill. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels on the roads round Bar Hill and Childerley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Some cars put 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. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Bar Hill
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Gladeside, perhaps at The Fox on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it takes place in Dry Drayton or the middle of Bar Hill, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Boxworth or a forecourt around Bar Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Cambridge North? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Cambridgeshire — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside The Mall at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Bar Hill?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Bar Hill.
Where the motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe then turn it off. Come off the M11 — under 3 miles out of Bar Hill — at the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Bar Hill is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Cambridge — so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Bar Hill, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by Bar Hill Community Primary School, near Bar Hill Library or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and your system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Bar Hill, for a moment
Bar Hill is a village situated near the River Ouse in Cambridgeshire, with a low elevation of around 24 metres. Bar Hill lies close to the city of Cambridge, approximately 5 miles to the northwest, and is part of the wider Cambridge urban area. Bar Hill has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the village. Bar Hill is also near several smaller villages, including Dry Drayton, Lolworth, and Oakington.
Bar Hill and Cambridgeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Bar Hill shares its vans surrounding places — Lolworth, Oakington — right across CB postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: give a CB23 8 postcode for our van.
The car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Bar Hill Church, a lay-by on the way to Bar Hill School Field, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Bar Hill Village Hall & Social Club, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Bar Hill people
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Cambridgeshire.