Horndon on the Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Horndon on the Hill, catching it before your motor turns usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Horndon on the Hill and Mucking carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Horndon on the Hill: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Orsett Road before work, or in the car park at The Bell on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. Great Malgraves or the middle of Horndon on the Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Horndon on the Hill forecourt or a drive over in Orsett, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the 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 collected from somewhere like the car park at Stanford-Le-Hope, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Essex that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Church Close on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Horndon on the Hill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine stays off. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not 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 pulled from.
On a forecourt — BP, Esso or any other — the staff will normally help push your car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Horndon on the Hill.
When your engine has run already, pull over safely and turn the vehicle off. On the M25, under 10 miles from Horndon on the Hill, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Horndon on the Hill is smaller a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Southend-on-Sea, and so say.
Our arrival in Horndon on the Hill, and what happens next
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside Horndon-On-the-Hill CofE Primary School, near Horndon Village Hall or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Those answers decide the work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that our technicians start the engine and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Horndon on the Hill and where it is
Horndon on the Hill is a village in Essex, situated near the coast and approximately 23 miles from London. Horndon on the Hill has a relatively low elevation of around 40 metres, and is close to the nearby cities of Southend-on-Sea and the surrounding villages of Great Malgraves and Southfields. Horndon on the Hill is predominantly composed of semi-detached housing, reflecting its development as a residential community. Horndon on the Hill remains a small village with a population of around 1199 people.
Horndon on the Hill and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Southfields and Balstonia are among the towns near Horndon on the Hill, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, over SS postcodes. A postcode starting SS17 8 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Horndon, a side street near St Peter and St Paul, Horndon on the Hill: we drain it where it stands. Tricky to explain, like the back of Methodist Church Youth Hall? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
In short, for Horndon on the Hill drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Essex.