AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastfield: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Eastfield, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels in Fengate, like those in Eastfield, run on two fluids; the motor gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Eastfield: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Broadway before work, or in the car park at The Hand and Heart on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Eastgate or the middle of Eastfield, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Peterborough or a forecourt in Eastfield.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Peterborough, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are around Cambridgeshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Eastfield Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Eastfield already?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the TotalEnergies, the Shell or anywhere else. On your own drive around Eastfield? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. Eastfield lies under 5 miles from the A1(M); on it, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Eastfield is less a job than a run of under 3 miles towards Peterborough, so say.
Eastfield: what occurs when we turn up
Outside Lime Academy Abbotsmede, near East Community Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set the work and price. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Eastfield and where it is
Eastfield is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, situated near the River Nene at an elevation of 19 metres. Eastfield sits adjacent to other residential areas such as Eastgate, Dogsthorpe, and Millfield, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Eastfield is a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 6735 residents, and is close to the city centre of Peterborough. Eastfield benefits from its proximity to the city's amenities and transport links, being about 1 mile from Peterborough and 74.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Eastfield, and Cambridgeshire beyond
Dogsthorpe and Millfield are among the places around Eastfield, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout PE postcodes. A postcode starting PE1 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by All Saints Parish Church, or a lay-by on the way to Central Park. Awkward to explain, like the back of Salem Baptist Chapel? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Eastfield motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere across Cambridgeshire: keep the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.