Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clements: Why It Occurs
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car sits around Clements, is usually what it needs if caught before your motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Clements and Chalkstone carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Clements: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Leather Lane, perhaps at The Suffolk Punch on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Clements or out in Haverhill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Chimswell or a forecourt around Clements, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in each inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — from Dullingham's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are around Suffolk — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Leiston Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Clements?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — BP, JET or another — the attendants will usually help push your car clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Clements is the place it stays.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Clements sits under 10 miles from the M11; on it, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Clements is less a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Cambridge, so say.
Our arrival in Clements, and what takes place next
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside Clements Primary Academy, near Leiston Community Centre or at home, the van travels to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and quote. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. After your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Clements, briefly
Clements is a suburban area in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 103 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Clements lies approximately 46 miles from London and 16 miles from Cambridge, placing it within commuting distance of both cities. Clements is close to nearby places such as Haverhill and Hazel Stub, and is also near the Parkway area. Clements has a population of around 6299 residents.
AdBlue drains across Suffolk, Clements included
Being a residential suburb, Clements shares its vans surrounding areas — Hazel Stub, Parkway — all the way across CB postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CB9 8.
There's no need to move the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Haverhill Mosque, a lay-by on the way to Haverhill Recreation Ground, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Haverhill Mathodist Church, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Clements motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever around Suffolk: keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.