Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastfield: Why It Happens
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Eastfield. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many current diesels on the roads around Eastfield and Lings carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Eastfield
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Grange Road before work, or in the car park at The Headland on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's seconds, be it in Spinney Hill or bang in the centre of Eastfield.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Eastfield or a drive over in Weston Favell. Seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Northampton? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever across Northamptonshire, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Broadmead Avenue at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Skip step five entirely.
Eastfield: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons Petrol Station, Tesco or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Eastfield.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Eastfield lies under 5 miles from the M1; there, use the next junction. A short hop across Eastfield is a smaller job than a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when we get there around Eastfield
Wherever your car has stopped, whether outside St Gregory's Catholic Primary School, beside Headlands United Reformed Church or at home, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because those replies determine this work and the price. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the car. Next we start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Eastfield
Eastfield is a suburban area in Northamptonshire, situated approximately 60 miles northwest of London and 16 miles southeast of Northampton. Eastfield sits at an elevation of around 108 metres, near the outskirts of Milton Keynes, and is surrounded by other residential areas such as Spinney Hill and Boothville. Eastfield is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development patterns of the East Midlands region. Eastfield remains a relatively small but established community within the wider Northamptonshire area.
AdBlue drains across Northamptonshire, Eastfield included
Eastfield is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Boothville and Parklands among them, across the NN postcode area. Give a postcode that starts NN3 2, and the van gets there quickest.
The car does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street near Providence Baptist Chapel, a lay-by on the way to Grange Road Open Space, a driveway. Guessing won't help at the back of St Alban's Church, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Eastfield people
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Northamptonshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.