Coningsby: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Coningsby, finding it before your motor turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Tumby, as well as Coningsby, carry on two liquids; your motor gets only your diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler on each tank. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Coningsby
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Park Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Black Swan on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 tip once it has started. It takes seconds, whether in Tattershall Thorpe or right in the centre of Coningsby.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Reedham or a forecourt around Coningsby.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Metheringham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Lincolnshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Ackrill Close.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Coningsby?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Gulf, Haltham Garage or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Coningsby.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction means the place to come off when you're on the M180, under 50 miles from Coningsby. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Coningsby is less a job than a run of under 25 miles to Lincoln, so tell us.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Coningsby
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Coningsby St Michael's Church of England Primary School, close to United Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what fluid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once our engineers are there. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Coningsby and where it is
Coningsby is a village situated on the banks of the River Witham in Lincolnshire, with a low elevation of around 9 metres. Coningsby lies near the market town of Tattershall and is approximately 17.6 miles from the city of Lincoln. Coningsby has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Tattershall Thorpe and Moor Side.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, Coningsby included
Coningsby is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Tattershall and Moor Side among them, across the LN postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a LN4 4 postcode for the van.
The vehicle remains put. Anywhere it stands — near The Coningsby Community Hall, in a layby en route to The Pingle, at home — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Saint Michael's Church.
For Coningsby people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Lincolnshire.