Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chilton: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Chilton. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Chilton and Great Waldingfield run, with diesel for the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Chilton: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Church Field Road before work, or in the car park outside Maldon Grey heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you cars come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
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. It's seconds, whether in Sudbury or bang in the centre of Chilton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Chilton or a driveway over in Great Cornard. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Sudbury Suffolk.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in Suffolk — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Martins Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Chilton?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at BP, Esso or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Chilton.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is the place to come off when you're on the M11, under 25 miles from Chilton. A short hop across Chilton is a smaller job than a run towards Colchester, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Chilton: what occurs when our technicians get there
Outside Woodhall Primary School, near St Mary, Chilton or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set the work and quote. During the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and check that it's running properly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Chilton itself
Chilton is a suburban area in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 73 metres, approximately 12.5 miles from Colchester and 52.9 miles from London. Chilton is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Chilton sits near other local communities, including Sudbury, Newmans Green, and Cornard Tye, in the rolling countryside of eastern England.
AdBlue drains round Chilton, and Suffolk beyond
As a residential suburb, Chilton has the same vans as surrounding places — Newmans Green, Cornard Tye — right through CO postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting CO10 2 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Great Cornard Village Sign, or a layby on the way to Belle Vue Park. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of QD Stores.
The short version for Chilton motorists
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Suffolk.