Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Castle End
Keep the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Castle End, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many newer diesels seen around Castle End and Market Deeping hold a second fluid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Castle End: how it occurs
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Orchard Grove before work, or in the car park at Blue Bell heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Castle End or out in Maxey.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Castle End or a drive over in The Rectory. A few seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Stamford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Cambridgeshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Tuckers Nook, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five stays out.
Castle End: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: your engine remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — The Co-operative, BP or another — the attendants will usually help push your car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Castle End.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. Castle End sits under 10 miles from the Great North Road; there, take the first junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Castle End makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Peterborough — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Castle End, and what occurs next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside William Hildyard Church of England Primary and Nursery School, near Saint Peter or on your own driveway. Those replies decide the work and our price, so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your car. Before we go, we start the car and make sure that it's running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Castle End
Castle End is a locality situated on the riverside in Cambridgeshire, with a low elevation of around 10 metres. Castle End lies near the cities of Peterborough and Stamford, and is close to the villages of Maxey, West Deeping, and Lolham. Castle End has a population of approximately 676 residents, predominantly living in detached housing. Castle End is located about 80 miles north of London, making it a relatively rural area within the Eastern region.
AdBlue drains about Castle End, and Cambridgeshire beyond
Castle End is a small village, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, West Deeping and Lolham among them, across the PE postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PE6 9.
No need to shift your car. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a street near Brian's Tree, or a layby towards Etton-Maxey Pits. Guessing doesn't help behind St Andrew, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Castle End people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Cambridgeshire.