Gorleston-on-Sea: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Gorleston-on-Sea. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many modern diesels around Hopton on Sea, as well as Gorleston-on-Sea, run on two fluids; the engine gets only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Gorleston-on-Sea: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Quay Road before work, or in the car park at The Belle Vue Inn on the way home.
New-to-you motors are next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap 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. It takes seconds, whether out in South Denes or right in the centre of Gorleston-on-Sea.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Gorleston-on-Sea or a driveway out in Cobholm Island. A few seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Great Yarmouth's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Norfolk, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Pier Gardens.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Gorleston-on-Sea: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Esso, BP or any forecourt will usually help to push your car clear when asked. If you are on your own driveway around Gorleston-on-Sea, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M11, over 50 miles from Gorleston-on-Sea, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Gorleston-on-Sea is less work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Norwich, so say.
Our arrival in Gorleston-on-Sea, and what occurs next
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Pavilion Theatre, or by Stradbroke Primary Academy. Those answers decide the work and our price, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Gorleston-on-Sea itself
Gorleston-on-Sea is a coastal town in Norfolk, situated on the east coast of England, with a low elevation of around 2 metres above sea level. Gorleston-on-Sea lies near the towns of South Denes, Bradwell, and Southtown, and is approximately 18.9 miles from Norwich. Gorleston-on-Sea has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Gorleston-on-Sea is a significant urban centre in the region, with a population of around 15948 people.
Gorleston-on-Sea and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
As a coastal town, Gorleston-on-Sea has the same vans as surrounding areas — Bradwell, Southtown — right through NR postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting NR31 6 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Admiral Horatio Nelson, a lay-by on the way to Ravine Gardens, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of Admiral Duncan's Pump? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
Gorleston-on-Sea people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Norfolk.