Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leigh-on-Sea: Why It Happens
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car sits around Leigh-on-Sea, is normally all it needs when found before the motor runs. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Leigh-on-Sea and Hadleigh carry, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Leigh-on-Sea: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Rectory Grove before work, or in the car park at The Crooked Billet on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. It takes seconds, whether out in Chalkwell or bang in the heart of Leigh-on-Sea.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Newlands or a forecourt around Leigh-on-Sea.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, wherever in 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 Hadleigh Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Leigh-on-Sea?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. At home around Leigh-on-Sea? So the vehicle remains put.
Where your engine has run already, stop safely then switch the vehicle off. Leave the M2 — under 15 miles out of Leigh-on-Sea — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Leigh-on-Sea is less a job than a run of under 3 miles towards Southend-on-Sea, and so say.
Leigh-on-Sea: what occurs when our engineers turn up
Outside Leigh North Street Primary School, near New Road Methodist Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The answers settle the work and our quote, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off until you've had our price over the phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Next we start it and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Leigh-on-Sea and where it is
Leigh-on-Sea is a coastal locality in Essex, situated on the northern side of the Thames Estuary, with Chalkwell and Westcliff-on-Sea to the east and Eastwood to the west. Leigh-on-Sea has a relatively low elevation of around 39 metres and is approximately 2.7 miles from the city of Southend-on-Sea. Leigh-on-Sea is characterised by a high proportion of flat dwellings, reflecting its urbanised and densely populated nature. Leigh-on-Sea is also within commuting distance of London, being around 33.5 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains round Leigh-on-Sea, and Essex beyond
Leigh-on-Sea is a coastal area, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Westcliff-on-Sea and Eastwood among them, across the SS postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning SS9 2, and the van gets there quickest.
No need to shift your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Leigh Hill Garden, a side street close to Leigh Bouy: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Leigh Library, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Leigh-on-Sea drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Essex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.