Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marden: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Marden, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around Marden and Fromington carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. The error lives in that gap.
Marden: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Little Paradise before work, or in the car park outside Amberley Arms on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Marden or out in Stony Cross.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Burmarsh or a forecourt around Marden, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Hereford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in Herefordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside Springfield Close at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Marden: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Murco, Shell or another — the attendants will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway around Marden is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M50 — under 15 miles out of Marden — at the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Hereford, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Marden.
Our arrival in Marden, and what occurs next
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Marden Primary Academy, close to Marden Chapel or on your own driveway. Those answers decide the work and our quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. Nobody sets off before you've heard our price by phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away unaided. Hence it counts more. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Marden
Marden is a village in Herefordshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 65 metres, approximately 4.9 miles from the city of Hereford. Marden lies near several smaller settlements, including Stony Cross, Walkers Green, and Hawkersland Cross, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Marden has a population of around 914 residents, and its location allows for easy access to the surrounding countryside. Marden is also relatively distant from major urban centres, with London being around 117.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Herefordshire, Marden included
Marden is a rural village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Walkers Green and Hawkersland Cross among them, across the HR postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a HR1 3 postcode for the van.
Your car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Laystone Bridge, a lay-by on the way to Marden Playing fields, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of War Memorial? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
For Marden drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Herefordshire.