AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Marsh: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Keep your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In East Marsh, catching it before your engine turns normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about East Marsh and Holme Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around East Marsh
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
On a driveway off Freeman Street before work, or in the car park at Freemans Arms heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of East Marsh or out in Prince Albert Gardens.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in East Marsh or a driveway out in Wellow. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in each inlet just there.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Grimsby Docks's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Lincolnshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Garibaldi Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around East Marsh already?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts your pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Asda or another — the staff will usually help roll your car away, when you ask. Your own driveway around East Marsh is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction means where to come off when you are on the M180, under 15 miles from East Marsh. Mileage matters — a quick hop across East Marsh makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Kingston upon Hull — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in East Marsh, and what takes place next
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside Saint Mary's Catholic Voluntary Academy, near Freeman Street Market or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because the replies decide the work and the quote. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About East Marsh and where it is
East Marsh is a coastal suburban area in northern Lincolnshire, situated near the town of Grimsby and approximately 16 miles from Kingston upon Hull. East Marsh lies at a low elevation of around 6 metres above sea level, close to the North Sea coast. East Marsh is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban nature and proximity to local amenities like Prince Albert Gardens and Grant Thorold.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, East Marsh included
Grant Thorold and Grimsby are among the places around East Marsh, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout DN postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning DN32 7, and our van gets there quickest.
The vehicle stays put. Wherever it stands — near Grimsby Central Hall, on a layby heading to Grant Thorold Park, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Guessing won't help behind Central Hall Youth Club, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for East Marsh people
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Lincolnshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.