AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mundesley: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Mundesley, finding it before the engine runs usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Mundesley and Paston Green carry a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Mundesley: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off High Street before work, or in the car park at The Ship Inn on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Mundesley or out in Cliftonville.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Mundesley or a driveway over in Gimingham. A few seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Gunton? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is around Norfolk — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not rushed by Station Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Mundesley: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. At home in Mundesley? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. Mundesley lies over 50 miles from the M11; on it, use the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Mundesley is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles to Norwich, so say.
When our engineers turn up around Mundesley, what happens?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Mundesley Junior School, near Mundesley Village Sign or on your own drive. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set the work and price. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, we start the car and make sure that it's running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Mundesley
Mundesley is a small coastal village in Norfolk, situated on the north-east coast of England, with an elevation of around 23 metres. Mundesley lies approximately 18 miles north of Norwich and 115 miles north-east of London, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Cliftonville, Paston, and Knapton. Mundesley has a population of around 1017 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains round Mundesley, and Norfolk beyond
Paston and Knapton are among the places near Mundesley, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout NR postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a NR11 8 postcode for our van.
The car remains put. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Mundesley Free Church, or a layby towards Gold Park. Awkward to explain, like the back of Mundesley Methodist Church? By a border? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for Mundesley people
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around Norfolk: keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.