AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kedington: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car is around Kedington. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Kedington and Barnardiston carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Kedington?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Silver Street, or heading home in the car park at Barnardiston Arms.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Kedington or out in Calford Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Wilsey or a forecourt around Kedington.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in each inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Dullingham, 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 across Suffolk that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Barton Drive.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kedington already?
Do not start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, JET or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car clear when you ask. Your own driveway around Kedington is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M11 — under 15 miles out of Kedington — at the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across Kedington is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Cambridge — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we arrive around Kedington
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Kedington Primary Academy, close to Kedington Village Sign or on your own drive. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the answers settle this work and the price. No one sets off until you have heard our quote over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Kedington and where it is
Kedington is a village in Suffolk, situated on the banks of the River Stour at an elevation of around 61 metres. Kedington lies near the villages of Calford Green, Brockley Green, and Little Wratting, and is approximately 17.5 miles from Cambridge. Kedington has a population of around 1368 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Kedington is also within commuting distance of London, being around 48.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Kedington, and Suffolk beyond
Kedington is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Brockley Green and Little Wratting among them, across the CB postcode area. A postcode starting CB9 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. We drain it where it is — a side street near Kedington Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Three Cocked Hat, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Peter and St Paul, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Kedington drivers
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Suffolk.