Point Clear: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Point Clear, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Point Clear and East Mersea carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler it needs. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Point Clear?
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Point Clear Road before work, or in the car park outside Mash and Barrel heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether out in Brightlingsea or right in the heart of Point Clear.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Point Clear forecourt or a driveway out in Seawick, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Great Bentley's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Essex the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Allen Way, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Point Clear already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Texaco, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Point Clear.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M2, under 50 miles from Point Clear, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Colchester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Point Clear.
What happens when our technicians get there in Point Clear
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near East Essex Aviation Society and Museum (Martello Tower A), or by Brightlingsea Primary School and Nursery. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
Then your tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Next we start the engine and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Point Clear
Point Clear is a small coastal village in Essex, situated near the mouth of the Colne Estuary and close to the nearby towns of Brightlingsea and St Osyth. Point Clear has a low elevation of around 1 metre, reflecting its coastal setting and proximity to the sea. Point Clear is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, which is typical of many villages in the region.
AdBlue drains in Point Clear and across Essex
Lee-over-Sands and St Osyth are among the towns near Point Clear, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over CO postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CO16 8.
No need to move your car. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Brightlingsea Outdoor Swimming Pool, or a lay-by on the way to The Orchards Holiday Village Golf Course. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Brightlingsea Museum.
Point Clear motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Essex.