How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Corton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits around Corton, is normally what it needs if found before the motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Corton and Flixton run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Corton?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off The Street before work, or in the car park outside White Horse on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. It's a few seconds, be it in Gunton or right in the heart of Corton.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Corton forecourt or a drive out in Oulton, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 outside Oulton Broad North.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is across Suffolk — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Station Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Corton already?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Asda or another — the staff will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Corton.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then switch off. Corton sits over 50 miles from the M11; on it, take the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Corton is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles to Norwich, so tell us.
Corton: what takes place when we arrive
The van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Corton Village Sign, or outside Corton Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School. Those replies determine the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off until you've heard the quote over the phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it counts more. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Corton and where it is
Corton is a small coastal village in Suffolk, situated near the towns of Gunton and Blundeston, with Hopton on Sea to the north. Corton sits at a low elevation of around 19 metres above sea level, looking out over the coastline. Corton has a population of approximately 600 residents, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Corton is located near the city of Norwich, which is about 20 miles away, and is around 106 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Corton, and Suffolk beyond
Corton is a coastal village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Blundeston and Hopton on Sea among them, across the NR postcode area. Give a postcode that starts NR32 5, and our van arrives quickest.
The car does not need to shift. Wherever it sits — near Corton Methodist Church, in a layby en route to Furze Plantation, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Corton Community Room, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Corton drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Suffolk.