Haughley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car stands in Haughley, is usually what it takes if found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Haughley and Wetherden carry, with diesel for the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Haughley?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off The Folly, or on the way home in the car park outside King's Arms.
New-to-you vehicles are next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Haughley or out in Dagworth.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Haughley Green or a forecourt around Haughley.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Stowmarket, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere around Suffolk the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush by Old Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
Haughley: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the motor remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the The Co-operative, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway in Haughley, leave it where it sits.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. On the M11, under 50 miles from Haughley, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Haughley is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Colchester, so say.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Haughley
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Crawford's Church of England Primary School, near Haughley Village Sign or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. On the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians start it and make sure that it's running properly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Haughley itself
Haughley is a rural village in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 54 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Haughley lies approximately 67.9 miles from London and 23 miles from Colchester, with nearby places including Dagworth, Haughley New Street, and Base Green. Haughley has a population of around 934 residents, who live in a quiet, predominantly residential community. Haughley is surrounded by the rolling countryside of the Eastern region.
Haughley and Suffolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout IP postcodes, our teams that cover Haughley — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Base Green and Haughley New Street among them. A postcode starting IP14 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Haughley Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to The Green, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Haughley Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Haughley people
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Suffolk: keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103.