Brentwood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Brentwood, finding it before your motor runs usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Brentwood and Brook Street run, with diesel feeding the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Brentwood?
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Shenfield Road, or heading home in the car park at The Dairyman.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Brentwood or out in Shenfield.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Hutton Mount or a forecourt around Brentwood.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — at the nearest station's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere across Essex the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Wilson's Corner.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, 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 when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Brentwood: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Brentwood.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M25, under 3 miles from Brentwood, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Brentwood is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Chelmsford, so tell us.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Brentwood
Outside St Thomas of Canterbury Church of England Aided Primary School, Brentwood, near William Hunter Memorial or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Those replies decide the work and our quote, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out until you have had our quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it is left. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Brentwood itself
Brentwood is a town situated inland in Essex, England, and is part of the commuter belt surrounding the capital city. Located northeast of central London, it is close to major transport links. The town is made up of several suburbs and is the namesake of the broader borough that encompasses nearby rural areas. Brentwood serves as a hub for those working in London due to its convenient location.
Brentwood and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Brentwood is a town, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Warley and Pilgrims Hatch among them, across the CM postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CM15 8.
Your car stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to North Road Playground, a side street near Brentwood Theatre: our engineers drain it where it is. Assuming doesn't help behind Sawyers Church, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Brentwood drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, anywhere in Essex: switch the car off then call 0333 366 0103.