How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St James End
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in St James End. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many modern diesels seen about St James End and West Lynn carry a second liquid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together under one flap. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, again and again. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
St James End: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off South Street, or on the way home in the car park outside The Fenman.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. Highgate or the middle of St James End: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a St James End forecourt or a drive over in Hardwick, take a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show which belongs in which filler right there.
- Can't find it next to the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Kings Lynn, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever in Norfolk the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Blackfriars Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. 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 the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around St James End?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains off. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the JET or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in St James End.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the A1(M) — under 50 miles out of St James End — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Ely, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St James End.
Our arrival around St James End, and what takes place next
Outside Greyfriars Academy, near Saint John the Evangelist or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. The answers decide this work and our quote, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About St James End, briefly
St James End is a suburban area located in the eastern part of England, near the coast of Norfolk. St James End sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Highgate and North End. St James End is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is common in many coastal areas of Norfolk. St James End is also situated near the larger town of Kings Lynn and the city of Ely, which is approximately 25 miles away.
AdBlue drains around St James End and across Norfolk
Kings Lynn and North End are among the towns around St James End, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout PE postcodes. Give a postcode beginning PE30 5, and the van arrives fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a road by Red Mount Chapel, or a lay-by on the way to Saint James’ Park. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Saint James, ring and ask rather than assuming.
St James End motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Norfolk, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.