How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Cove
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In North Cove, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven around North Cove and Worlingham hold another liquid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at every filling station visit, again and again. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around North Cove: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Fountain's Lane before work, or in the car park outside Three Horseshoes on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Barnby or the heart of North Cove: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Rushmere or a forecourt in North Cove, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors mark what goes in each filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Beccles? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Suffolk, use this routine.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed beside The Street on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
North Cove: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — BP, Tesco or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around North Cove.
Where the motor has run by now, stop safely then switch it off. The next exit is where to come off if you're on the M11, over 50 miles from North Cove. Mileage counts — a short hop across North Cove makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Norwich — so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when we arrive around North Cove
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Barnby and North Cove Community Primary School, near North Cove Village Sign or on your own drive, the van comes to it. The answers settle this work and our price, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Next: 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 does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Then our engineers start the car and make sure it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About North Cove, briefly
North Cove is a small village in Suffolk, situated inland near the Norfolk border, with an elevation of around 8 metres. North Cove lies close to the villages of Barnby, Mutford, and Hulver Street, and is approximately 19 miles from Norwich. North Cove has a population of around 558 people, predominantly living in detached houses. North Cove is also relatively distant from London, at around 99 miles away.
AdBlue drains about North Cove, and Suffolk beyond
Throughout NR postcodes, our vans that cover North Cove — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Hulver Street and Mutford included. Give a postcode that starts NR34 7, and the van arrives fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Barnby Village Sign, or a lay-by towards North Cove Nature Reserve. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Saint Botolph, North Cove, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For North Cove drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Suffolk.