Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Henham
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your car stands in Henham, is usually all it needs if caught before your motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Pledgdon Green, as well as Henham, carry on two liquids; your motor takes just the diesel. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Henham
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off High Street, perhaps at The Cock Inn on the way home after work.
New-to-you motors come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Henham or out in Woodend Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Little Henham or a forecourt around Henham.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many motors mark which goes in which filler right there.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Elsenham.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are in Essex — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Crow Street.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Henham?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at JET, Esso or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear when asked. Your own driveway around Henham is where it stays.
Where the engine has run already, stop somewhere safe then turn it off. On the M11, under 3 miles from Henham, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Henham is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards Chelmsford, and so tell us.
Henham: what occurs when our engineers turn up
Our van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Henham Village Hall, or outside Henham and Ugley Primary and Nursery School. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. Nobody heads out before you have had the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is emptied and the system flushed thoroughly. 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 the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. Then our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Henham
Henham is a small village in Essex, situated in a rural area with a mix of arable land and woodland, and is characterized by its detached housing stock. Henham sits at an elevation of 116 metres, giving it a relatively high vantage point in the surrounding countryside. Henham is located near several other small settlements, including Woodend Green and Elsenham Station, and is within commuting distance of Chelmsford. Henham has a population of around 574 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Henham and across Essex
Over CM postcodes, the teams that cover Henham — a rural village — work the surrounding locations too, Elsenham Sta and Old Mead among them. Quickest of all: quote a CM22 6 postcode for our van.
Your car does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Willis's Spring, a side street near St Mary the Virgin, Henham: we drain the car where it stands. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Tiny Curtis Rugby Ground? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
For Henham motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Essex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.