Kirby Cross: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands in Kirby Cross, is normally all it takes when found before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — yet many current diesels driven round Kirby Cross and Frinton-on-Sea hold a second fluid as well. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Kirby Cross?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Frinton Road, perhaps outside The Ship on the way home that evening.
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 gets to 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, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It takes a few seconds, whether in Kirby-le-Soken or right in the heart of Kirby Cross.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Thorpe Cross or a forecourt around Kirby Cross, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Essex that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Crossfield Way on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is off limits.
Kirby Cross: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. Your own drive in Kirby Cross is where it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is the place to leave when you are on the M2, under 50 miles from Kirby Cross. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Kirby Cross is smaller a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Colchester, and so tell us.
Kirby Cross: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Kirby Cross Village Sign, or by Kirby Primary Academy. The answers determine the work and the quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour once we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Kirby Cross
Kirby Cross is a small village on the Essex coast, situated near the towns of Kirby-le-Soken and Great Holland. Kirby Cross has a population of around 1186 people and is characterised by detached housing. Kirby Cross is located approximately 14 miles from Colchester and 62 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community within commuting distance of larger urban areas.
AdBlue drains around Kirby Cross and across Essex
As a coastal village, Kirby Cross shares its vans nearby areas — Great Holland, Lane End — all the way across CO postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts CO13 0, and the van arrives quickest.
The car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to St. Michael, Kirby-le-Soken, a lay-by on the way to Halstead Road Play Area, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Kirby Le Soken Village Sign.
The short version for Kirby Cross people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Essex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.