Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Holme Hale
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car is in Holme Hale. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many newer diesels driven about Holme Hale and North Pickenham carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, again and again. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Holme Hale
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Cook Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, keeps on. Ivy Todd or the heart of Holme Hale: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Ashill or a forecourt around Holme Hale, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the 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 the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Norfolk that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Church Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Holme Hale?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the motor remains off. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at ASDA, BP or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if asked. Your own drive in Holme Hale is the place it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction means where to come off when you are on the M11, under 50 miles from Holme Hale. A short hop across Holme Hale is a smaller job than a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Holme Hale
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Necton VA Primary School, close to Saint Andrew's Church or on your own driveway. Those replies determine this work and the quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then the tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. After the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
If the engine hasn't run, most 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. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Holme Hale, briefly
Holme Hale is a small village in Norfolk, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 55 metres. Holme Hale lies near the villages of Ivy Todd, Necton, and West End, and is approximately 21 miles from Norwich. Holme Hale has a population of around 525 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Holme Hale is also within commuting distance of London, being around 87 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Holme Hale and across Norfolk
Being a village, Holme Hale has the same vans as nearby places — Necton, West End — all the way across IP postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting IP25 7.
Moving your car isn't necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by Holme Hale Village Sign, or a layby on the way to Ashill Recreation Ground. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Holme Hale Village Hall.
The short version for Holme Hale people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Norfolk, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.