Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Moulton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands around Moulton, is normally all it takes if found before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Moulton and Austendike carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Moulton?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Broad Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Swan on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new vehicle.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it out in Weston or right in the heart of Moulton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Moulton or a driveway over in Halesgate. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — from Spalding's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere around Lincolnshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Somerby Close, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Moulton?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Your own drive around Moulton is the place it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A1(M), under 25 miles from Moulton, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Peterborough, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Moulton.
What occurs when we arrive in Moulton
Wherever your car has stopped, be it by The John Harrox Primary School, Moulton, near All Saints or at home, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those answers determine this work and our price. That price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it is left. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that our engineers start it and check it runs smoothly before we go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take about half an hour after we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Moulton itself
Moulton is a small village in Lincolnshire, situated in the East Midlands region of England, with a population of around 1200 people. Moulton lies approximately 17 miles from Peterborough and 89 miles from London, in a low-lying area with an elevation of around 9 metres. Moulton is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Weston, Loosegate, and Whaplode. Moulton remains a quiet, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
Moulton and Lincolnshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout PE postcodes, our vans that cover Moulton — a rural village — work the nearby spots too, Whaplode and Loosegate among them. Give a postcode beginning PE12 6, and our van gets there quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Weston Playing Field, a side street near Moulton Harrox Sports and Social Society: we drain the car where it stands. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Moulton Windmill, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Moulton people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Lincolnshire.