How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Oxney Green
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Great Oxney Green, finding it before the motor turns normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many modern diesels seen around Great Oxney Green and Edney Common hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Great Oxney Green: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Ongar Road, or heading home in the car park at Rose & Crown.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Little Oxney Green or the middle of Great Oxney Green, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Widford or a forecourt in Great Oxney Green.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Chelmsford.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is across Essex — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chequers Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Great Oxney Green?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor stays off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Harvest Energy, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Great Oxney Green.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M25, under 15 miles from Great Oxney Green, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Chelmsford, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Great Oxney Green.
Our arrival in Great Oxney Green, and what occurs next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Writtle Junior School, near Writtle Library or on your own drive. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide the work and price. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying that 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 doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Great Oxney Green and where it is
Great Oxney Green is a suburban area located on the riverside in Essex, with an elevation of 56 metres and situated near the city of Chelmsford. Great Oxney Green sits approximately 2.6 miles from Chelmsford and 27.8 miles from London, with nearby places including Little Oxney Green, Writtle, and Newney Green. Great Oxney Green has a population of around 3125 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing.
Great Oxney Green and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Over CM postcodes, our vans that cover Great Oxney Green — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Newney Green and Writtle among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CM1 3.
Your car stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Paradise Park, a side street near Writtle United Reformed Church: we drain it where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Writtle Village sign.
Great Oxney Green motorists: the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Essex.