Great Bardfield: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where the car stands in Great Bardfield, is normally what it takes when found before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads around Great Bardfield and Walthams Cross carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
Great Bardfield: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Bell Lane, or outside The Bell on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Great Bardfield or out in Bridge End.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt around Great Bardfield or a driveway over in Finchingfield. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — at Braintree's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever in Essex, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Dunmow Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Great Bardfield: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Gulf, Tillbrooks Garage or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away when you ask. Your own drive around Great Bardfield is the place it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M11, under 10 miles from Great Bardfield, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Chelmsford, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Great Bardfield.
What occurs when our engineers get there in Great Bardfield
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Great Bardfield Primary School, near Great Bardfield Town Hall or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so we ask. You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Great Bardfield itself
Great Bardfield is a village in Essex, situated on the banks of the River Pant, with an elevation of around 78 metres. Great Bardfield lies near the villages of Bridge End and Little Bardfield, and is approximately 14.6 miles from Chelmsford. Great Bardfield has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant in the area. Great Bardfield is also within commuting distance of London, being around 38.8 miles from the city.
AdBlue drains in Great Bardfield and across Essex
As a village, Great Bardfield shares its vans surrounding places — Little Bardfield, Oxen End — right through CM postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a CM7 4 postcode for the van.
Shifting the car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Great Bardfield Cottage Museum, a lay-by on the way to Lodge Wood, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Mary the Virgin, Great Bardfield.
The short version for Great Bardfield motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Essex.