AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little London: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. In Little London, finding it before your engine runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels around Freckenham, like those in Little London, run on two fluids; the engine takes only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Little London: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Priory Gardens, or outside The Griffin on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a strange motor.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Isleham or the middle of Little London: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in West Row or a forecourt around Little London, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Soham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere across Cambridgeshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Dockings Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Little London: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on 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 do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Pace or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. At home in Little London? Then the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. Little London sits under 25 miles from the M11; there, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Ely, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Little London.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in Little London
Outside Isleham Church of England Primary School, near Isleham Lime Kilns or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so we ask. On the call itself, you are told the price — ahead of anything else.
Then your tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Little London, for a moment
Little London is a suburban area in Cambridgeshire, situated near the city of Ely and close to the villages of Isleham and East End. Little London lies in a low-lying inland area, with an elevation of around 8 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Little London is also located near the Waterside area and is part of the wider Eastern region of England.
AdBlue drains across Cambridgeshire, Little London included
Little London is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, East End and Waterside among them, across the CB postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CB7 5.
There's no need to shift the car. Wherever it stands — beside Isleham Hoard, on a lay-by en route to Isleham Recreation Ground, at home — that is where it is emptied. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Andrew, (Isleham Parish Church).
For Little London drivers, the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Cambridgeshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.