AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little Wakering: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Little Wakering. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Little Wakering and Cupids Corner carry, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Little Wakering: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Havenside before work, or in the car park at Castle Inn on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Little Wakering or out in Barling.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Samuels Corner or a forecourt around Little Wakering, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Thorpe Bay? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Essex — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Crofts.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel filler remained closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Little Wakering already?
Short order, then. First: your motor remains off. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Asda, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Little Wakering.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. Come off the M2 — under 25 miles out of Little Wakering — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Little Wakering.
Our arrival around Little Wakering, and what happens next
Outside Barling Magna Primary Academy, near Saint Mary the Virgin or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and price. During the call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. Next our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both 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 Little Wakering itself
Little Wakering is a small village on the coast of Essex, situated near the mouth of the River Roach and close to the larger village of Great Wakering. Little Wakering lies at a low elevation of around 12 metres, with its semi-detached housing stock reflecting the area's relatively recent development. Little Wakering is located near the towns of Southend-on-Sea and Rochford, and is part of the wider Southend-on-Sea urban area.
AdBlue drains round Little Wakering, and Essex beyond
Little Wakering is a coastal village, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Great Wakering and Stonebridge among them, across the SS postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SS3 0.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Great Wakering Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Friars Park, a drive. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of All Saints, Barling Magna.
For Little Wakering motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere across Essex: switch the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.