How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cavendish
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle is in Cavendish. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Hickford Hill, as well as Cavendish, carry on two fluids; the engine takes just your diesel. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, again and again. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Cavendish
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off High Street, or heading home in the car park at The George Inn.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. It takes seconds, be it out in Pentlow Street or right in the centre of Cavendish.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Wales End or a forecourt in Cavendish.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Sudbury Suffolk? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Suffolk — a routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Peacocks Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five altogether.
Cavendish: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Tesco, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when asked. At home in Cavendish? So the car remains put.
Where your engine has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Leave the M11 — under 25 miles out of Cavendish — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Colchester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Cavendish.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Cavendish
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether outside Cavendish Church of England Primary School, near Cavendish Village Sign or at home, our van comes to it. Which liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the replies decide both work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. After the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Cavendish, for a moment
Cavendish is a village in Suffolk, situated on the banks of the River Stour at an elevation of around 41 metres. Cavendish lies near the villages of Pentlow Street, Pentlow, and Glemsford, and is approximately 17.7 miles from Colchester. Cavendish has a population of around 851 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Cavendish is located within the Eastern region of England, about 51.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Cavendish and across Suffolk
Cavendish is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Pentlow and Glemsford among them, across the CO postcode area. Give a postcode that starts CO10 8, and the van arrives fastest.
Your car remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Easty Wood, a side street near Cavendish War Memorial: our engineers drain the car where it stands. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Mary the Virgin, Cavendish, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Cavendish motorists
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Suffolk.