AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Martham: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Martham. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Martham and Mustard Hyrn carry, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Martham
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Repps Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Kings Arms.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Damgate or the middle of Martham, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Rollesby or a forecourt in Martham.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Acle, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Norfolk that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Black Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Martham?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the JET, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. At home in Martham? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M11 — over 50 miles out of Martham — at the first exit. A short hop across Martham is a smaller job than a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Martham
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Martham Village Sign, or outside Martham Academy and Nursery. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since the replies set both work and quote. Nobody sets off until you have had the price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Martham itself
Martham is a village in Norfolk, situated inland at a low elevation of around 7 metres, and is located approximately 15 miles from Norwich. Martham has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and the village is close to nearby places such as Damgate and Cess. Martham is also near Thunder Hill, and its population is around 2436 people. Martham is about 111 miles from London, making it a rural community with some distance from the capital city.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Martham included
Cess and Thunder Hill are among the places around Martham, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over NR postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NR29 4.
Your car does not need to move. Anywhere it stands — near Martham Village Hall, in a lay-by heading to Sound Plantation, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of Martham Entry Village Sign? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
For Martham motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Norfolk, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.