Clenchwarton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Clenchwarton. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many current diesels on the roads around Clenchwarton and South Lynn carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Clenchwarton?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Hall Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Partridge.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in West Lynn or the middle of Clenchwarton, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Tilney All Saints or a forecourt in Clenchwarton, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask 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 Kings Lynn.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Norfolk the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Smallholdings Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Clenchwarton?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Clenchwarton? Then the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Clenchwarton lies under 50 miles from the A1(M); there, take the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Clenchwarton makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles towards Ely — so say about how far it went.
Clenchwarton: what occurs when our technicians get there
Our van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Saint Margaret, or outside Clenchwarton Primary School. What liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies decide both work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next our technicians start it and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Clenchwarton and where it is
Clenchwarton is a coastal village in Norfolk, situated near the mouth of the Great Ouse river and close to the nearby settlements of West Lynn and Kings Lynn. Clenchwarton has a low elevation of around 5 metres above sea level, reflecting its location in the coastal lowlands of Eastern England. Clenchwarton remains a small community with a mix of housing types, although detached homes are predominant. Clenchwarton is within commuting distance of larger towns like Ely, which is around 25 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Clenchwarton included
Kings Lynn and North End are among the towns near Clenchwarton, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over PE postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting PE34 4.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Clenchwarton Village Sign, in a lay-by en route to Jubilee Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Jubilee Bank Anchor.
Clenchwarton people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Norfolk.