How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Farcet
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Farcet. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Farcet and Yaxley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Farcet
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Middle Street before work, or in the car park outside Apple Cart heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Stanground South or the heart of Farcet: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Old Fletton or a forecourt around Farcet, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Peterborough's car park, perhaps — not once the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever around Cambridgeshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Field Terrace, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your 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. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Farcet already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Applegreen or any other — the staff will normally help push your car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Farcet.
Where your engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. The next exit means the place to leave if you are on the Great North Road, under 5 miles from Farcet. Mileage matters — a short hop across Farcet makes a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Peterborough — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Farcet, what occurs?
By Farcet CofE (C) Primary School, close to Farcet Salvation Army or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we start the car and check it runs properly before we go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Farcet, briefly
Farcet is a village situated on the banks of the River Nene in Cambridgeshire, with a low elevation of around 14 metres. Farcet lies close to the city of Peterborough, approximately 2.6 miles away, and is near other local places such as Stanground South and Hampton Hargate. Farcet has a population of around 1596 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Farcet is located within the Eastern region of England, about 71.2 miles from London.
Farcet and Cambridgeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Farcet is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Stanground and Hampton Hargate among them, across the PE postcode area. Fastest of all: give a PE7 3 postcode for the van.
Moving the car is not needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Mary (Farcet Parish Church), a lay-by on the way to Crown Lakes, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Cardea Community Sports Pavillion, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Farcet drivers
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Cambridgeshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.