Prittlewell: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Prittlewell, catching it before the motor turns normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. Here in advance? Then what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Prittlewell and Clifftown carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Prittlewell: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Priory Avenue, or at The Railway on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Prittlewell or out in Southend-on-Sea.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Chalkwell or a forecourt in Prittlewell.
- 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 plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere you are across Essex — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Eastern Avenue.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Prittlewell: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — BP, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Prittlewell, leave the car where it sits.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M2 — under 25 miles out of Prittlewell — at the next exit. A short hop across Prittlewell is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under a mile away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Prittlewell, what happens?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside The Westborough School, near Prittlewell Priory or on your own drive. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel 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. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Prittlewell and where it is
Prittlewell is a suburban area located on the coast of Essex, situated near the city of Southend-on-Sea. Prittlewell sits at an elevation of 21 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Prittlewell is close to other nearby places such as Westcliff-on-Sea and Porters Town, and is approximately 36 miles from London. Prittlewell has a population of around 5897 people.
AdBlue drains in Prittlewell and across Essex
Being a residential suburb, Prittlewell has the same vans as nearby places — Porters Town, Westcliff-on-Sea — right across SS postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a SS2 6 postcode for our van.
Your car does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near St Mary’s Centre, on a layby en route to Walled Garden, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Providence Baptist Church? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Prittlewell drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Essex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.