How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Impington
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle stands around Impington, is normally what it takes if caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Impington and Arbury carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Impington
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Bridge Road before work, or in the car park outside Rose & Crown on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor 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.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. Histon or the heart of Impington: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt around Impington or a drive out in Kings Hedges. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Cambridge North.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Cambridgeshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Water Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Impington?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Gulf, BP or any other — the attendants will usually help push your car away, if you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Impington, leave the car where it stands.
When your engine has run by now, stop safely then switch it off. Impington lies under 3 miles from the M11; there, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Cambridge, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Impington.
Impington: what takes place when our technicians turn up
By Histon and Impington Brook Primary School, near Man & Dog or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies decide the work and quote. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel 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 filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, our technicians start it and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Impington and where it is
Impington is a village situated on the banks of the River Cam in Cambridgeshire, with a low elevation of around 13 metres. Impington lies close to the city of Cambridge, approximately 3 miles to the northwest, and is part of the wider Cambridge urban area. Impington has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the village. Impington is also near several other communities, including Histon, Orchard Park, and Girton.
Impington and Cambridgeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Orchard Park and Girton are among the places around Impington, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout CB postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CB24 9.
The vehicle remains where it is. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near Histon Baptist Church, or a lay-by towards Histon & Impington Recreation Ground. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Kay Hitch Way Community Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Impington drivers
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Cambridgeshire.