AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Bentley: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Great Bentley, catching it before the motor runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels in Ravens Green, as well as Great Bentley, carry on two liquids; your motor takes only your diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Great Bentley
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off The Path before work, or in the car park at The Plough Inn on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether in Aingers Green or right in the heart of Great Bentley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Great Bentley forecourt or a driveway out in South Heath, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Essex that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Thorrington Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Great Bentley?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Corner Service Station, Shell or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Great Bentley.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. Great Bentley lies under 50 miles from the M11; on it, take the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Great Bentley is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Colchester — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when we get there around Great Bentley
Our van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St Mary the Virgin, Great Bentley, or by Great Bentley Primary School. The replies determine the work and our price, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Great Bentley itself
Great Bentley is a village in Essex, situated on the banks of the River Colne, with a low elevation of around 27 metres. Great Bentley has a mix of old and new housing, but predominantly features detached homes, and is located near other small settlements such as Aingers Green and Thorrington. Great Bentley is close to the city of Colchester, which is about 7 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, at around 56 miles to the southwest. Great Bentley remains a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 1444 residents.
AdBlue drains in Great Bentley and across Essex
Throughout CO postcodes, the teams covering Great Bentley — a village — work the surrounding places too, Frating Green and Thorrington included. Quickest of all: quote a CO7 8 postcode to our van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Wherever it stands — near Great Bentley Village Sign, on a layby heading to Great Bentley Green, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Methodist Church of Great Bentley, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Great Bentley motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Essex.