Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newmarket: Why It Occurs
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't turned, it is drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits around Newmarket. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads around Newmarket and Walkleywood carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Newmarket: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Wood End Lane, perhaps at The George Inn on the way home that evening.
New-to-you motors come next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Shortwood or the middle of Newmarket, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Windsoredge or a forecourt in Newmarket, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Stroud? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Gloucestershire — a routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Higher Newmarket Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Newmarket: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Newmarket? So the car remains put.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. The next exit is where to come off when you are on the M5, under 10 miles from Newmarket. Mileage counts — a short hop across Newmarket is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Gloucester — so say about how far it went.
Newmarket: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Arkell Community Centre, or by Nailsworth Church of England Primary School. The replies decide the work and our price, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. No one sets off until you have had the price over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Newmarket and where it is
Newmarket is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 105 metres. Newmarket lies near the cities of Gloucester and the surrounding villages of Shortwood and Forest Green. Newmarket has a population of approximately 3310 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Newmarket is located about 11.7 miles from Gloucester and 91.3 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Newmarket and across Gloucestershire
Worley and Forest Green are among the places near Newmarket, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout GL postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting GL6 0.
Moving your car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near The New Lawn, a lay-by on the way to Queen Elizabeth Field, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Christ Church? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
The short version for Newmarket motorists
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Gloucestershire.