AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little Baddow: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where the car is in Little Baddow. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Danbury Common, as well as Little Baddow, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Little Baddow: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off The Ridge, or on the way home in the car park at The Generals Arms.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Danbury or the heart of Little Baddow: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt around Little Baddow or a drive out in Mowden. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Beaulieu Park? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Essex — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Spring Elms Lane.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Little Baddow already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump. On your own drive in Little Baddow? Then the car stays put.
Where the motor has been run already, pull over safely then switch the car off. The next exit means where to leave when you're on the M25, under 25 miles from Little Baddow. About how far did it go? Hopping across Little Baddow is less work than a trip of under 5 miles to Chelmsford, so say.
Our arrival in Little Baddow, and what happens next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St John Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Danbury, near Little Baddow Village sign or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set the work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the car. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Little Baddow
Little Baddow is a village situated on the River Chelmer in Essex, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached houses. Little Baddow lies near the city of Chelmsford, and its residents are close to the amenities of the city while still enjoying a rural setting. Little Baddow has a population of around 652 people and is located near other small villages such as Danbury and Ulting. Little Baddow is also relatively close to London, being about 34 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across Essex, Little Baddow included
Being a village, Little Baddow has the same vans as nearby places — Runsell Green, Ulting — all the way across CM postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: quote a CM3 4 postcode to the van.
Your car does not need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near Little Baddow Memorial Hall, or a lay-by towards Heather Hills Nature Reserve. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Little Baddow Chapel.
The short version for Little Baddow motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Essex: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.