How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sutton
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it is drained and fully rinsed where your car is around Sutton. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Sutton and Haddenham End Field run, with diesel for your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sutton: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off High Street, perhaps at The Chequers on the way home that evening.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Sutton or out in Mepal.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Sutton or a driveway out in Wentworth. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Ely.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever in Cambridgeshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Row, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sutton?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Sutton.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M11 — under 15 miles out of Sutton — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Sutton is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Ely, so say.
Sutton: what occurs when our technicians turn up
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Sutton in the Isle Village Sign, or by Sutton CofE VC Primary School. Those answers settle the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. No one heads out until you've had our price by phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Sutton
Sutton is a village in Cambridgeshire, situated inland near the city of Ely. Sutton sits at an elevation of around 25 metres, close to the villages of Mepal and Witcham. Sutton has a population of approximately 2431 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Sutton is located about 6 miles from Ely and 61 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Sutton and across Cambridgeshire
Being a rural village, Sutton shares its vans nearby places — Sutton Gault, Witcham — right through CB postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode beginning CB6 2, and our van gets there quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Sutton Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Old Play Copse, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of Brooklands Centre, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Sutton people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Cambridgeshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.