AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hempton: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits around Hempton, is normally all it takes when found before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads round Hempton and Shereford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hempton: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Batterby Green, or at The Bell on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it occurs in Pudding Norton or the middle of Hempton, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Toftrees or a forecourt in Hempton.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which belongs in which filler just there.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Norfolk the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Raynham Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Hempton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Hempton? So your car stays where it is.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the car off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the M11, over 50 miles from Hempton. Distance counts — a quick hop across Hempton makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Norwich — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Hempton, and what happens next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Fakenham Junior School, near Holy Trinity or on your own driveway. What liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set the work and price. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole 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 counts more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: 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 Hempton and where it is
Hempton is a small village in Norfolk, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 42 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Hempton lies near the villages of Pudding Norton and Fakenham, and is approximately 23.6 miles from Norwich. Hempton has a population of around 524 residents, and its location near the river makes it a notable part of the local landscape. Hempton is also within commuting distance of larger cities, being around 99.9 miles from London.
Hempton and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Fakenham and Sculthorpe are among the places near Hempton, a village, that the same vans cover, over NR postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a NR21 7 postcode to our van.
The car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to St Peter's Garden, a side street near Hempton Village Sign: our engineers drain the car where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Groggs' Mill, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Hempton motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Norfolk.