AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southend-on-Sea: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully flushed where your vehicle is around Southend-on-Sea. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Southend-on-Sea and Prittlewell carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Southend-on-Sea: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Churchill Square before work, or in the car park outside The Townhouse on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. It's a few seconds, be it in Porters Town or right in the centre of Southend-on-Sea.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Southchurch or a forecourt in Southend-on-Sea.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Southend Victoria? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are in Essex — a routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Southchurch Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading 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.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Southend-on-Sea?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at BP, Esso or any forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away if asked. At home around Southend-on-Sea? Then the car remains put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Southend-on-Sea lies under 15 miles from the M2; on it, take the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Southend-on-Sea is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Chelmsford — so tell us about how far it went.
When we turn up around Southend-on-Sea, what happens?
By St Mary's, Prittlewell, CofE Primary School, near Odeon or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those replies determine this work and our price, and so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. During the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Southend-on-Sea, for a moment
Southend-on-Sea is a city situated on the coast of Essex, overlooking the Thames Estuary. It is located near to London, with the capital city lying to the west. The city is notable for its densely populated urban area and is home to a number of distinctive landmarks. Southend-on-Sea boasts a unique claim to fame as the location of the world's longest pleasure pier.
AdBlue drains around Southend-on-Sea, and Essex beyond
Throughout SS postcodes, our teams that cover Southend-on-Sea — a coastal city — work the surrounding places too, Westcliff-on-Sea and Clifftown among them. Give a postcode beginning SS1 1, and the van gets there fastest.
The car stays put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to The Victoria, a lay-by on the way to Wellbeing Garden, a driveway. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of IndiRock, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Southend-on-Sea motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Essex.