AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Galleys Corner: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits in Galleys Corner, is usually all it needs when caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many modern diesels driven around Galleys Corner and Cressing carry a second fluid as well. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There is a filler on each tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Galleys Corner?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Cressing Road before work, or in the car park outside Mulberry Tree heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Galleys Corner or out in Long Green.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Hawbush Green or a forecourt around Galleys Corner.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Braintree Freeport? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Essex that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Galleys Corner Roundabout 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. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Galleys Corner?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the TotalEnergies, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. At home around Galleys Corner? So the vehicle stays where it is.
When your motor has been run by now, stop safely then switch it off. Galleys Corner lies under 25 miles from the M11; on it, use the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Galleys Corner is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles to Chelmsford, so say.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Galleys Corner
By Beckers Green Primary School, near TK Maxx or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those replies decide the work and our quote. Nobody heads out before you've heard the price by phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it sits. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. The motor is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Galleys Corner
Galleys Corner is a suburban area in Essex, situated approximately 39 miles northeast of London and 10 miles from Chelmsford. Galleys Corner sits at an elevation of around 70 metres, near the communities of Long Green, Tye Green, and Lanham Green. Galleys Corner has a population of around 2657 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Essex, Galleys Corner included
As a residential suburb, Galleys Corner shares its vans nearby places — Tye Green, Lanham Green — all the way through CM postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting CM77 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Cineworld, a lay-by on the way to Muntjac Woods, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of M&S Outlet, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Galleys Corner people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever around Essex: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.