Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Teversham
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully cleaned where the car sits around Teversham. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Fen Ditton, like those in Teversham, run on two liquids; your engine takes only the diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
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. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
Teversham: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Cherry Hinton Road, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar car.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Quy Waters or the heart of Teversham: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Teversham or a driveway out in Romsey Town. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Cambridge North? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cambridgeshire that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never rushed by High Street on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Teversham?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Teversham Motors, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away when you ask. At home around Teversham? Then the car remains where it is.
When your motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. On the M11, under 5 miles from Teversham, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Teversham is smaller a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Cambridge, so say.
Teversham: what takes place when our engineers get there
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Teversham CofE VA Primary School, beside Spurgeon's Cottage or at home, our van comes to it. The answers decide the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Teversham
Teversham is a small village in Cambridgeshire, situated on the River Cam, with Quy Waters nearby. Teversham has a low elevation of around 13 metres and is located close to Cambridge, being only 3 miles from the city centre. Teversham is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is part of the wider Cambridge urban area, with Cherry Hinton and Coldhams Common also in the vicinity. Teversham is within commuting distance of London, at approximately 49.9 miles away.
Teversham and Cambridgeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Cherry Hinton and Coldhams Common are among the towns around Teversham, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout CB postcodes. Fastest of all: give a CB1 9 postcode to the van.
Your car does not need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near a street just off the centre, or a lay-by on the way to Church Green. Tricky to pin down, like the back of All Saints (Teversham)? By a border? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Teversham motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Cambridgeshire.