How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cranbrook
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. In Cranbrook, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Cranbrook and Manor Park carry, with diesel for the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two together under one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Cranbrook
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Redcliffe Gardens before work, or in the car park outside The Great Spoon of Ilford heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
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. Whether it occurs in Gants Hill or the middle of Cranbrook, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Little Ilford or a forecourt around Cranbrook, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is 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 Ilford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater London that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Endsleigh Gardens.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cranbrook already?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Shell or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive in Cranbrook, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M11, under 3 miles from Cranbrook, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards London, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Cranbrook.
When we get there around Cranbrook, what happens?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Highlands Primary School, close to Masjid-e-Owais-e-Qarni or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If your motor has not 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. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Cranbrook
Cranbrook is a suburban area in Greater London, situated near the River Roding at an elevation of around 14 metres. Cranbrook lies approximately 9.1 miles from central London and is close to nearby places such as Gants Hill, Ilford, and Redbridge. Cranbrook is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the typical residential architecture of the region. Cranbrook has a population of around 12,436 people, making it a moderately sized suburban community.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Cranbrook included
As a residential suburb, Cranbrook shares its vans nearby places — Ilford, Redbridge — all the way through IG postcodes and the wider area around them. Fastest of all: give a IG1 3 postcode to our van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by St Andrew, or a lay-by towards Valentines Park. Guessing won't help at the back of Sri Rajarajeshwari Amman Temple, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Cranbrook people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Greater London.