How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Long Johns Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Long Johns Hill, finding it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads about Long Johns Hill and Richmond Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Long Johns Hill?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Barrett Road, or at Shoe Makers on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle 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.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Long Johns Hill or out in Lakenham.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Long Johns Hill forecourt or a drive over in Trowse Newton, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 outside Norwich.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Norfolk that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Cavell Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Long Johns Hill?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — BP, Asda or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Long Johns Hill.
When the motor has been run already, pull over safely then switch the car off. On the M11, over 50 miles from Long Johns Hill, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Norwich, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Long Johns Hill.
When we get there in Long Johns Hill, what occurs?
Our van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Old Lakenham Community Centre, or outside Edith Cavell Academy and Nursery. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. The quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it is left. After the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Long Johns Hill, briefly
Long Johns Hill is a locality situated on the riverside in Norfolk, close to the city of Norwich. Long Johns Hill lies near several other settlements, including Lakenham and Trowse Millgate, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Long Johns Hill has a relatively low elevation of around 15 metres above sea level, reflecting its proximity to the River Yare. Long Johns Hill is home to a population of approximately 3649 residents.
Long Johns Hill and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Old Lakenham and Trowse Millgate are among the places near Long Johns Hill, a neighbourhood, that the same vans cover, over NR postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a NR1 2 postcode for the van.
The car does not need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Saint John the Baptist and All Saints, or a layby on the way to Jubilee Park. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of New Hope Christian Centre.
In short, for Long Johns Hill people
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Norfolk: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.