Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Diss
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Diss, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but many newer diesels driven round Diss and Palgrave carry another liquid as well. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. 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. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Diss: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Market Place, or on the way home in the car park outside The Saracens Head.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Walcot Green or the heart of Diss: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Diss forecourt or a drive out in Roydon, spend a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the 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 — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Norfolk that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Diss: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Morrisons, Shell or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear if asked. Your own driveway around Diss is where it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M11, under 50 miles from Diss, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Diss is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles towards Norwich, so tell us.
Our arrival in Diss, and what takes place next
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Diss Museum, or outside Diss Church of England Junior Academy. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. Nobody sets off until you have heard our price over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and confirm that it's running properly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Diss and where it is
Diss is a town situated in the Waveney Valley in Norfolk, England, with a riverside setting along the River Waveney. Diss sits at an elevation of 32 metres and is located approximately 19 miles south of Norwich. Diss has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is surrounded by smaller villages such as Walcot Green and Brewers Green. Diss is also within commuting distance of London, being around 80 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Diss included
Diss is a riverside town, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Brewers Green and Westbrook Green among them, across the IP postcode area. A postcode starting IP22 4 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Diss Mere Wildlife Garden, a side street close to No 8 Marketplace: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Saint Mary the Virgin.
For Diss people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Norfolk.