How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gunton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Gunton, finding it before the motor turns normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels seen around Gunton and Lowestoft carry another liquid as well. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. 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. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Gunton?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Hollingsworth Road, or heading home in the car park at The Norman Warrior.
Unfamiliar motors come second, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Oulton or the heart of Gunton: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Corton or a forecourt in Gunton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many cars show which belongs in each filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Lowestoft? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere across Suffolk, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never rushed beside Spashett Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Gunton?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Tesco or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Gunton.
When the motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. The next exit means where to leave when you are on the M11, over 50 miles from Gunton. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Gunton.
What takes place when we turn up in Gunton
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Gunton Primary Academy, near St Benedict's or on your own drive. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide the work and price. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run take roughly half an hour after we arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Gunton, briefly
Gunton is a suburban area located on the eastern coast of England, in the county of Suffolk, with a population of around 5856 people. Gunton sits at an elevation of 28 metres, near the nearby places of Oulton, Normanston, and Roman Hill. Gunton is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Gunton is situated approximately 21 miles from Norwich and 104.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Gunton and across Suffolk
Being a residential suburb, Gunton has the same vans as nearby places — Normanston, Roman Hill — all the way through NR postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a NR32 4 postcode to the van.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a lay-by on the way to Foxburrow Wood, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Gunton Baptist Church.
In short, for Gunton drivers
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Suffolk.