Great Cornard: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits in Great Cornard, is usually all it needs if found before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads about Great Cornard and Middleton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Great Cornard?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Wells Hall Road, perhaps outside Kings Head on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Little Cornard or the middle of Great Cornard, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Sudbury or a forecourt around Great Cornard.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Sudbury Suffolk? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is around Suffolk — a simple routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Canhams Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Great Cornard already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Esso or somewhere else. On your own drive in Great Cornard? Then the vehicle remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Great Cornard sits under 25 miles from the M11; on it, take the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Colchester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Great Cornard.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Great Cornard
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Great Cornard Sports Centre, or by Wells Hall Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Great Cornard
Great Cornard is a suburban area in Suffolk, situated on the River Stour at an elevation of 27 metres. Great Cornard lies near the market town of Sudbury and the village of Little Cornard, with the city of Colchester approximately 11 miles to the south. Great Cornard has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Great Cornard is also close to other nearby places, including Henny Street and Cornard Tye, and is around 52 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Great Cornard, and Suffolk beyond
Great Cornard is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Henny Street and Cornard Tye among them, across the CO postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a CO10 0 postcode to our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it sits — beside The Stevenson Centre, on a layby heading to Great Cornard Recreation Ground, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Awkward to explain, like the back of Great Cornard Village Sign? By a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
In short, for Great Cornard motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Suffolk.