How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Trimley St Mary
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. In Trimley St Mary, finding it before the engine turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but many newer diesels seen round Trimley St Mary and Lower Falkenham carry a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. It's in that gap that the error lives.
Trimley St Mary: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Faulkeners Way before work, or in the car park outside Three Mariners on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Trimley Lower Street or the middle of Trimley St Mary, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Kirton or a forecourt around Trimley St Mary, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Trimley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Suffolk that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Mill Pouch.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel filler remained closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Trimley St Mary already?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Shell or another — the attendants will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Trimley St Mary.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to come off when you're on the M11, under 50 miles from Trimley St Mary. A short hop across Trimley St Mary is a smaller job than a run towards Colchester, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Trimley St Mary, and what occurs next
By Trimley St Mary Primary School, near Trimley Free Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The replies decide this work and our quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. No one sets off until you have heard our quote by phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it sits. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that our technicians start it and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Trimley St Mary and where it is
Trimley St Mary is a village in Suffolk, situated on the coast near the estuary of the River Orwell. Trimley St Mary has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most common, and the village is located about 70 miles from London. Trimley St Mary sits close to other nearby places, including Trimley Lower Street and Trimley St Martin, and is near the city of Colchester. Trimley St Mary is a small community with a population of around 2285 people.
AdBlue drains in Trimley St Mary and across Suffolk
Trimley St Mary is a coastal village, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Trimley St Martin and Walton among them, across the IP postcode area. A postcode starting IP11 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car isn't needed. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Trimley St Mary Village Sign, a lay-by on the way to Stennett Memorial Field, a driveway. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Two Sisters Arts Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Trimley St Mary motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Suffolk.