Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newnham: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine has not turned, it's emptied and fully flushed where your car sits around Newnham. Here in advance? In that case the rest explains how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Newnham and Swaffham Prior run, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Newnham
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Hythe Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Fox on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a new vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. Burwell or the middle of Newnham: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Newnham or a driveway over in Exning. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Soham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around Cambridgeshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Laburnum Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Newnham already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Asda, the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive around Newnham? Then your car remains put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M11, under 15 miles from Newnham, that means the next exit. A short hop across Newnham is a smaller job than a run towards Ely, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Newnham: what happens when our engineers get there
Outside Burwell Village College (Primary), close to Jubilee Reading Room or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set the work and quote. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. Then our technicians start it and check it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Newnham itself
Newnham is a suburban area located on the riverside in Cambridgeshire, with a low elevation of around 6 metres. Newnham sits near the city of Ely, approximately 8.6 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Burwell and Reach. Newnham has a population of around 3190 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Newnham is also situated within commuting distance of London, around 56.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Newnham, and Cambridgeshire beyond
Newnham is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Old Pembroke Farm and Reach among them, across the CB postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CB25 0.
The vehicle stays put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Burwell Library, a lay-by on the way to Burwell House, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Burwell Sports Centre.
In short, for Newnham drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Cambridgeshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.