AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Claydon: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the car sits around Claydon, is usually all it needs if found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many current diesels seen around Claydon and Akenham hold a second fluid too. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Claydon: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Greyhound Corner before work, or in the car park at The Greyhound on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar motors come second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. Sharpstone Street or the middle of Claydon: it is the same few seconds either way.
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 drive in Whitton or a forecourt around Claydon.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Westerfield.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Suffolk, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Norwich Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Claydon?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Asda or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. At home in Claydon? Then your car remains put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M11 — under 50 miles out of Claydon — at the next junction. A short hop across Claydon is a smaller job than a run towards Colchester, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Claydon, what happens?
Outside Claydon Primary School, near Claydon and Barham Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Claydon, for a moment
Claydon is a village in Suffolk, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 13 metres. Claydon lies near the towns of Colchester and Ipswich, and is within commuting distance of London, approximately 67 miles to the southwest. Claydon has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is close to nearby places such as Sharpstone Street and Great Blakenham. Claydon is a relatively small community with a population of around 1990 people.
Claydon and Suffolk: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Claydon shares its vans surrounding places — Great Blakenham, Barham — right through IP postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts IP6 0, and our van arrives fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Claydon Schools Lower Field, a side street close to Claydon Village Sign: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Peter? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for Claydon drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Suffolk.