Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shepreth: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Shepreth, finding it before your motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Here before the event? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels driven about Shepreth and Chiswick End hold a second fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Shepreth: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Meldreth Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Plough.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Shepreth or out in Barrington.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Melbourn or a forecourt around Shepreth.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere around Cambridgeshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Station Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Shepreth?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Thames Petrol or the Wilshers Garage, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. At home around Shepreth? So the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M11, under 5 miles from Shepreth, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Cambridge, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Shepreth.
Our arrival around Shepreth, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Foxton Primary School, near the centre or on your own driveway. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers determine this work and our price. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. After that our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Shepreth
Shepreth is a small village in Cambridgeshire, situated on the banks of the River Cam at an elevation of around 22 metres. Shepreth lies approximately 7 miles south of Cambridge and 42 miles north of London, with nearby villages including Barrington, Foxton, and Meldreth. Shepreth has a population of around 623 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains about Shepreth, and Cambridgeshire beyond
Being a village, Shepreth shares its vans surrounding areas — Foxton, Meldreth — right across SG postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode that starts SG8 6, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the car. Wherever it sits — near Docwra's Manor, in a layby heading to Red pandas, at home — that is where it gets cleared. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Shepreth Village Hall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Shepreth motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Cambridgeshire.