Horringer: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Horringer. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — but many current diesels seen about Horringer and Bull Green carry another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Horringer: how it happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a drive off Manor Lane before work, or in the car park at The Six Bells on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new car.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it in Westley or bang in the heart of Horringer.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Horringer or a driveway over in Nowton. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Bury St Edmunds's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Suffolk that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Hornings Park.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read it.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Horringer?
Brief order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the JET, ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump. If you are on your own driveway in Horringer, leave the car where it is.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. Horringer sits under 25 miles from the M11; on it, use the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Horringer is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Ely — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Horringer
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ickworth Park Primary School, near St. Leonard's Church or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because those answers settle the work and our quote. Nobody sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. 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. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, we start the engine and make sure that it's running correctly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour after we are there. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Horringer itself
Horringer is a rural village in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of around 89 metres. Horringer lies approximately 60 miles from London and 21 miles from the city of Ely, with nearby villages including Westley, Little Saxham, and Pinford End. Horringer has a population of around 1031 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains around Horringer, and Suffolk beyond
Little Saxham and Pinford End are among the towns around Horringer, a rural village, that the same teams cover, over IP postcodes. Give a postcode that starts IP29 5, and our van arrives quickest.
There's no need to move the car. Wherever it stands — beside Horringer Community Centre, on a lay-by heading to Elizabeth Grove, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Guessing doesn't help behind Horringer cum Ickworth Village Sign, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Horringer drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Suffolk.