Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hickling
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't run, it's drained and fully cleaned where your vehicle sits around Hickling. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Hickling and Sutton carry, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hickling: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car 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 The Green, or heading home in the car park at The Greyhound.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Hickling Green or the middle of Hickling, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Catfield or a forecourt in Hickling, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — from Worstead's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Norfolk that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Heath Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hickling?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Gulf, Tesco or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car away, when you ask. At home around Hickling? So your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M11, over 50 miles from Hickling, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Norwich, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hickling.
Hickling: what takes place when our technicians turn up
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by Hickling CofE Infants Academy, near Hickling Village Sign or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, however long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Hickling, briefly
Hickling is a small village in Norfolk, situated inland near the Norfolk Broads. Hickling sits at a low elevation of around 3 metres, and is located approximately 14.5 miles from Norwich. Hickling has a population of around 603 people, and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Hickling is also close to nearby places such as Hickling Green and Hickling Heath.
Hickling and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Hickling Heath and Calthorpe Street are among the towns near Hickling, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over NR postcodes. A postcode starting NR12 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Greyhound Pub Garden, a side street near Hickling Methodist Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Assuming won't help behind Hickling Barn, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for Hickling drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Norfolk.