Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brightlingsea: Why It Happens
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not run, it is drained and fully purged where your car is around Brightlingsea. Reading in advance? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Brightlingsea and St Osyth carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Brightlingsea: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Victoria Place before work, or in the car park outside The Kings Head on the way home.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. Point Clear or the heart of Brightlingsea: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in South Heath or a forecourt in Brightlingsea, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Alresford.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Essex, follow this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Ladysmith Avenue.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read it.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Brightlingsea?
Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Your own drive in Brightlingsea is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is where to leave when you're on the M11, under 50 miles from Brightlingsea. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Colchester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Brightlingsea.
Our arrival around Brightlingsea, and what occurs next
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Brightlingsea Town Council, or outside Brightlingsea Primary School and Nursery. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide this work and our quote. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it is left. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Brightlingsea and where it is
Brightlingsea is a coastal town in Essex, situated on the Colne Estuary at an elevation of around 11 metres. Brightlingsea lies near the cities of Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, and is close to the nearby places of Point Clear, Thorrington, and East Mersea. Brightlingsea has a population of approximately 9052 people, and its housing stock is predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Essex, Brightlingsea included
Throughout CO postcodes, our teams that cover Brightlingsea — a coastal town — work the nearby locations too, East Mersea and Thorrington included. A postcode starting CO7 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street near St James' Church, a lay-by on the way to Springmead Gardens, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Brightlingsea Library.
In short, for Brightlingsea drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever around Essex: switch the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.