How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Copford
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your vehicle is in Copford. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Copford and Aldham run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from its own 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. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Copford: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry 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 gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off School Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Swan.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have 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 tip, after started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Copford or out in Copford Green.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Mulberry Green or a forecourt around Copford.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, 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 Marks Tey, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Essex, use this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of London Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Copford already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it alone starts the pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Shell, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if asked. Your own drive in Copford is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M11 — under 25 miles out of Copford — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Copford is less work than a trip of under 5 miles to Colchester, and so say.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Copford
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Copford Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, close to Marks Tey Parish Hall or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one sets off before you have heard the quote by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Copford, for a moment
Copford is a village situated on the riverside in Essex, with a relatively low elevation of 37 metres. Copford lies near the city of Colchester, approximately 4.4 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as Copford Green and Marks Tey. Copford has a population of around 883 residents and predominantly features detached housing. Copford is located within the Eastern region of England, about 47.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Copford, and Essex beyond
Over CO postcodes, our vans covering Copford — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Seven Star Green and Marks Tey included. A postcode starting CO6 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car stays put. Anywhere it stands — near St Andrews, Mark Tey, on a lay-by heading to Gravel Pit Wood, at home — that's where it is emptied. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Michael and All Angels, Copford, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Copford drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Essex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.