Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Passmores
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly purged where the car is around Passmores. Reading before the event? Then what follows explains how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Passmores and Stewards run, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt visit, again and again. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Passmores
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Old Orchard, or heading home in the car park outside The Archer's Dart.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new car.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the pour begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Passmores or out in Tye Green.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Passmores forecourt or a drive out in Hare Street, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Harlow Town? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is across Essex — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Partridge Road at the roadside.
- 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 your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Passmores?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — BP, Esso or any other — the staff will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Passmores, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M11 — under 3 miles out of Passmores — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Passmores is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles towards Chelmsford, and so say.
Passmores: what happens when our technicians arrive
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside The Salvation Army - Harlow, or outside Abbotsweld Primary Academy. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those answers settle the work and our quote. Nobody heads out before you have heard the price over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our engineers start the engine and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Passmores and where it is
Passmores is a suburban area in Essex, situated near the River Lea and characterised by its terraced housing. Passmores sits at an elevation of around 64 metres, with nearby places including Tye Green, Great Parndon, and The High. Passmores is located close to the city of Chelmsford, approximately 16 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, at around 20 miles from the capital. Passmores has a population of around 6623 residents.
AdBlue drains in Passmores and across Essex
Over CM postcodes, our teams that cover Passmores — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, The High and Great Parndon included. Give a postcode beginning CM18 6, and our van arrives fastest.
The car does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Magic Jumping Bean, a lay-by on the way to Abercrombie Way Playing Field, a driveway. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Echo, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Passmores people
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Essex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.