Hutton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Hutton. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Hutton and Haverings Grove run, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Hutton
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Hanging Hill Lane before work, or in the car park at The Chequers on the way home.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. It takes seconds, be it in Hutton Mount or right in the centre of Hutton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Brentwood or a forecourt in Hutton.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Shenfield's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Essex, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Brookfield Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your 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.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hutton already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or somewhere else. At home in Hutton? So your car stays put.
Where your motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch it off. Hutton lies under 5 miles from the M25; there, use the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Chelmsford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hutton.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in Hutton
Outside Willowbrook Primary School, close to Hutton Free Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies determine the work and our quote. During the call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need about half an hour once our engineers are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Hutton, briefly
Hutton is a suburban area in Essex, situated approximately 22 miles from London and 9 miles from Chelmsford. Hutton sits in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of around 69 metres, near the communities of Hutton Mount and Shenfield. Hutton has a population of around 6434 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Hutton and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Shenfield and Mountnessing are among the towns near Hutton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over CM postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts CM13 2, and our van gets there fastest.
The car remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Hutton Poplars Green, a side street near The Christian Centre: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Peters, Hutton, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Hutton drivers: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Essex.