Norwich: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Norwich. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Norwich and Heigham Grove run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Norwich: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Gentlemans Walk, or heading home in the car park outside The Wine Cellar.
Unfamiliar motors are next, too. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it in Chapelfield Grove or bang in the heart of Norwich.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Richmond Hill or a forecourt in Norwich, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many motors show what goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are across Norfolk — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Old Post Office Court.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel filler remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Norwich?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — JET, Esso or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway around Norwich is the place it should stay.
Where your engine has run already, stop safely then turn it off. Norwich lies over 50 miles from the M11; there, take the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Norwich is less work than a trip of under 50 miles towards Ely, and so tell us.
Norwich: what happens when we turn up
By The Free School Norwich, close to Norwich Market or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies decide the work and price. No one heads out until you've had the quote over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, we start the engine and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Norwich and where it is
Norwich is a city situated in the eastern part of England, in the county of Norfolk, where it serves as the main town. It is located on the banks of the River Wensum, providing a scenic riverside setting. The city is known for its historic cathedral and is a significant urban centre in the region. Norwich is positioned near several major cities, including London and Ipswich.
AdBlue drains in Norwich and across Norfolk
Norwich is a cathedral city, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Coslany and The Close among them, across the NR postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NR2 1.
No need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Memorial Garden, a side street near City coat of arms mosaic: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The White Company.
The short version for Norwich motorists
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Norfolk.