Lowestoft: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lowestoft. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the engine — but many newer diesels seen around Lowestoft and Kirkley carry a second fluid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lowestoft: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Gordon Road, perhaps at The Slounge on the way home after work.
New-to-you motors are next, too. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's a few seconds, be it out in Roman Hill or bang in the centre of Lowestoft.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Oulton or a forecourt in Lowestoft.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across Suffolk — a routine to use.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Clapham Road South on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Lowestoft: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: the engine stays off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Asda or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive in Lowestoft, leave the car where it sits.
When the engine has run already, stop safely then switch the car off. Lowestoft lies over 50 miles from the M11; there, use the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lowestoft.
Our arrival around Lowestoft, and what takes place next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Roman Hill Primary School, near Lowestoft Library or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies determine the work and the price. Nobody heads out until you've heard the quote by phone.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your 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, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once we arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Lowestoft itself
Lowestoft is a coastal town in Suffolk, situated on the North Sea coast at a low elevation of around 6 metres. Lowestoft lies approximately 21 miles east of Norwich and 104 miles northeast of London, with nearby areas including Roman Hill, Normanston, and Gunton. Lowestoft has a population of around 18,993 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Lowestoft remains a significant urban centre in the region, with a strong sense of community.
Lowestoft and Suffolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Normanston and Gunton are among the places around Lowestoft, a coastal town, that the same vans cover, throughout NR postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NR32 1.
Your car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street by Our Lady Star of the Sea, or a lay-by on the way to The Lowestoft Fountains. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of The Britten Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Lowestoft people
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever across Suffolk: switch the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.