How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Catton
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In New Catton, catching it before the motor runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many newer diesels driven round New Catton and Coslany carry a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in New Catton
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Wild Road, perhaps at The Angel Gardens on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a new car.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of New Catton or out in Mill Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in The Close or a forecourt in New Catton.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Norwich? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Norfolk, use this routine.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Chamberlin Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in New Catton?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Esso, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in New Catton.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the M11, over 50 miles from New Catton. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Norwich, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across New Catton.
New Catton: what occurs when our engineers get there
Outside Angel Road Infant School, close to Rosebury Road Methodist Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies determine the work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel 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 counts more here than with petrol. After your filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About New Catton, for a moment
New Catton is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Norwich in Norfolk, situated near the River Wensum. New Catton sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres, with its riverside setting influencing the local environment. New Catton is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the area's development as a residential suburb of Norwich. New Catton is close to other nearby suburbs, including Mill Hill and Upper Hellesdon.
New Catton and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
New Sprowston and Upper Hellesdon are among the towns near New Catton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over NR postcodes. Give a postcode that starts NR3 3, and the van arrives quickest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Waterloo Park, a side street near Saint Luke's Church Centre: we drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Christ Church.
New Catton drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Norfolk.