How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Snettisham
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Snettisham, finding it before your engine runs normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains why it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Snettisham and Shepherds Port carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what cap to use. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Snettisham: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Old Church Road, perhaps outside Queen Victoria on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts 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. It's a few seconds, whether out in Norton Hill or bang in the centre of Snettisham.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Heacham or a forecourt around Snettisham, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says 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 Kings Lynn.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere across Norfolk the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Lynn Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located your filler and read it.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Snettisham?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Lavender Hill Service Station, Tesco Fuel or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Snettisham.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the A1(M), under 50 miles from Snettisham, that means the next junction. A short hop across Snettisham is a smaller job than a run towards Ely, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when we get there around Snettisham
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by Snettisham Primary School, beside the centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide the work and price. During the call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Snettisham and where it is
Snettisham is a small village on the coast of Norfolk, situated near the Wash and approximately 98 miles north of London. Snettisham sits at a low elevation of around 17 metres, with the village and surrounding areas like Norton Hill and Ingoldisthorpe forming a local community. Snettisham has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and the village is close to the nearby city of Ely. Snettisham remains a quiet residential area with a population of around 1062 people.
AdBlue drains round Snettisham, and Norfolk beyond
Throughout PE postcodes, our vans that cover Snettisham — a coastal village — work the surrounding spots too, Ingoldisthorpe and Southgate included. Quote a postcode that starts PE31 7, and our van gets there fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Frogpits Wood, a side street close to Saint Mary: our technicians drain it where it is. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Saint Mary's Church Hall, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Snettisham drivers
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in Norfolk.