How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Earlham
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when your motor hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where your vehicle is around Earlham. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of current diesels seen about Earlham and Colney hold a second liquid too. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
Earlham: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Wilberforce Road before work, or in the car park outside The Fiveways on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Earlham or out in West Earlham.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Earlham forecourt or a driveway out in Bowthorpe, take a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Norwich.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Norfolk, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Earlham Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Earlham?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the BP or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Earlham.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the M11, over 50 miles from Earlham. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Earlham is smaller work than a trip of under 3 miles to Norwich, and so say.
When we get there around Earlham, what happens?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside West Earlham Junior School, near Saint Mary's or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the replies settle this work and our price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we start it and check it runs properly before we go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Earlham, briefly
Earlham is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Norwich in Norfolk, England, situated near the River Yare at an elevation of 31 metres. Earlham sits approximately 2.3 miles west of Norwich city centre and is part of the larger Norwich urban area. Earlham has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant in the area. Earlham is also close to nearby places such as West Earlham and North Earlham.
AdBlue drains around Earlham, and Norfolk beyond
North Earlham and Earlham Rise are among the places around Earlham, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout NR postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts NR4 7, and our van arrives fastest.
No need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Long Grove, a side street near Holy Apostles St. Peter & St. Paul Catholic Church: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of City Academy Norwich.
Earlham drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Norfolk.