Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Loves Green
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Loves Green, finding it before the engine runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Loves Green and Cooksmill Green carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Loves Green?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Highwood Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Fox and Goose.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Edney Common or the heart of Loves Green: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Mill Green or a forecourt in Loves Green.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Ingatestone, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Essex, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush by Sparrows Close on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Loves Green already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Applegreen, Harvest Energy or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away if asked. On your own drive in Loves Green? So your car stays where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. Loves Green sits under 10 miles from the M25; there, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Chelmsford, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Loves Green.
When our engineers turn up around Loves Green, what occurs?
By Highwood Primary School, close to St Paul, Highwood or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide the work and price. On the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Loves Green itself
Loves Green is a small village in Essex, situated inland at an elevation of around 83 metres, approximately 25 miles from London. Loves Green lies near the city of Chelmsford, with neighbouring areas including Edney Common, Radley Green, and Handley Green. Loves Green has a population of around 697 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains around Loves Green, and Essex beyond
As a rural village, Loves Green has the same vans as nearby areas — Radley Green, Handley Green — right across CM postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts CM1 3, and our van gets there fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. Wherever it stands — beside Off road cycle centre, on a layby heading to Ellis Wood, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Cooksmill Green Congregational Church? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
For Loves Green drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Essex.