AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Roman Hill: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Leave the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Roman Hill, catching it before your motor turns usually means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Coton, like those in Roman Hill, run on two liquids; your engine gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Roman Hill?
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Cambridge Road, perhaps outside The White Horse on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars come second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it 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 after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Roman Hill or out in Barton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Newnham or a forecourt in Roman Hill.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Cambridge's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Cambridgeshire — a simple 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 New Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet 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.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Roman Hill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Pace or the Shell, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own driveway in Roman Hill, leave the car where it stands.
Where your engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Roman Hill lies under a mile from the M11; on it, take the next exit. A short hop across Roman Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Cambridge, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Roman Hill: what happens when our engineers get there
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Barton CofE VA Primary School, beside St Peter (Barton Parish Church) or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes away unaided, however long it sits. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. We don't 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 fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Roman Hill
Roman Hill is a small village in Cambridgeshire, situated near the city of Cambridge and surrounded by other villages such as Barton and Grantchester. Roman Hill sits at a low elevation of around 25 metres, in a generally flat inland area of Eastern England. Roman Hill has a population of approximately 504 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Cambridgeshire, Roman Hill included
Over CB postcodes, our vans that cover Roman Hill — a rural village — work the nearby places too, Trumpington and Grantchester among them. A postcode starting CB23 7 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Secret Garden, a side street near Barton Village Hall: we drain the vehicle where it is. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Barton Baptist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Roman Hill drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Cambridgeshire.