Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coltsfoot Green: Why It Occurs
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when your engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle is around Coltsfoot Green. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Coltsfoot Green and Mole Hill run, with diesel for your engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for every tank. On a lot of vehicles 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 petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Coltsfoot Green?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Coltsfoot Close before work, or in the car park at Greyhound Inn heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, keeps on. Meeting Green or the heart of Coltsfoot Green: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Coltsfoot Green forecourt or a drive out in Park Gate, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Newmarket.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere across Suffolk the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Croft Close.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Coltsfoot Green already?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Coltsfoot Green.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M11 — under 25 miles out of Coltsfoot Green — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Cambridge, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Coltsfoot Green.
Coltsfoot Green: what occurs when our engineers get there
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by Wickhambrook Primary Academy, near Wickhambrook Womens Institute or on your own drive, our van travels to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers determine the work and our quote. No one heads out until you have had our price by phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Coltsfoot Green itself
Coltsfoot Green is a small suburban area in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 89 metres. Coltsfoot Green lies approximately 54 miles from London and 19 miles from Cambridge, placing it within commuting distance of both cities. Coltsfoot Green is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, with nearby villages such as Meeting Green and Wickhambrook also forming part of the local community.
AdBlue drains around Coltsfoot Green, and Suffolk beyond
As a residential suburb, Coltsfoot Green shares its vans surrounding areas — Thorns, Wickhambrook — all the way through CB postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: give a CB8 8 postcode for the van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Wickhambrook Memorial Social Centre, or a layby on the way to Four Acre Wood. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Wickhambrook Village Sign, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Coltsfoot Green motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Suffolk.