Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mile Cross: Why It Happens
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Mile Cross. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels driven round Mile Cross and Old Catton carry another fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Mile Cross
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Reepham Road before work, or in the car park outside The Boundary heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. Whether it takes place in Catton Grove or the middle of Mile Cross, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Mile Cross or a driveway out in New Catton. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show what goes in which inlet just there.
- Can't find it beside the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Norwich's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are across Norfolk — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Boundary Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mile Cross already?
Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Asda or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. At home in Mile Cross? Then the vehicle remains put.
Where the motor has been run by now, stop safely then switch the car off. Mile Cross sits over 50 miles from the M11; there, use the next junction. A short hop across Mile Cross is a smaller job than a run towards Norwich, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up in Mile Cross
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Salvation Army Family Worship and Community Centre, or outside Heather Avenue Infant School. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since those replies determine this work and our price. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is drained and the system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. After the filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car gets tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run take about half an hour once we arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Mile Cross, for a moment
Mile Cross is a suburban area located near Norwich in Norfolk, sitting at an elevation of around 33 metres in the eastern part of England. Mile Cross is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Catton Grove and Hellesdon. Mile Cross is a relatively small area, with a population of approximately 5121 residents, and is about 2.1 miles from the centre of Norwich. Mile Cross forms part of the wider Norwich urban area, which is around 99.3 miles from London.
Mile Cross and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Mile Cross is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Upper Hellesdon and Hellesdon among them, across the NR postcode area. Quickest of all: give a NR6 5 postcode to the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Wherever it sits — near Methodist Church, on a lay-by en route to Mile Cross Gardens, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Catholic Church of Saint Boniface, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Mile Cross motorists
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever in Norfolk: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.