Methwold: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Methwold, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Methwold and Little London carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Methwold?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Globe Street before work, or in the car park at The George heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Methwold or out in Brookville.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Methwold forecourt or a drive over in Feltwell, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Lakenheath? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Norfolk that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chapel Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Methwold already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Merco or the another forecourt nearby, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. At home in Methwold? Then the car remains put.
Where your engine has run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Come off the M11 — under 50 miles out of Methwold — at the first junction. A short hop across Methwold is a smaller job than a run towards Ely, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Methwold: what happens when our engineers turn up
Outside Duchy of Lancaster Methwold CofE Primary School, close to St George's Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The answers determine the work and the quote, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. Before we go, our engineers start it and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Methwold and where it is
Methwold is a small village in the north of Norfolk, situated in a low-lying area of the Fens at an elevation of around 17 metres. Methwold lies near the villages of Brookville and Northwold, and is close to the Methwold Hythe area. Methwold has a population of approximately 635 people, living in predominantly detached housing. Methwold is located about 14.9 miles from the city of Ely and around 75.9 miles from London.
Methwold and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Methwold is a rural village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Methwold Hythe and Northwold among them, across the IP postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting IP26 4.
The vehicle stays where it is. Wherever it sits — near Saint George's Church, on a layby heading to Queen Elizabeth II Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Guessing doesn't help behind Methwold Social Club, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Methwold motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Norfolk, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.