How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Walsham le Willows
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands around Walsham le Willows, is usually what it needs if caught before the engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about Walsham le Willows and West Street carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Walsham le Willows: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Finningham Road before work, or in the car park at The Blue Boar on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes 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 easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Four Ashes or the heart of Walsham le Willows: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Badwell Green or a forecourt around Walsham le Willows.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Elmswell's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Suffolk that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour 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 a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Walsham le Willows?
Don't start your engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Lamberts Service Station or somewhere else. If you're on your own driveway around Walsham le Willows, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Walsham le Willows sits under 50 miles from the M11; there, use the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Walsham le Willows makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Norwich — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we turn up in Walsham le Willows, what takes place?
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it by Walsham-le-Willows Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, near Walsham le Willows Congregational Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Walsham le Willows itself
Walsham le Willows is a rural village in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 49 metres, and is located approximately 71 miles from London. Walsham le Willows has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Four Ashes and Cranmer Green. Walsham le Willows is close to the city of Norwich, which is about 27 miles away, and has a population of around 726 residents. Walsham le Willows remains a quiet village with a strong sense of community.
AdBlue drains across Suffolk, Walsham le Willows included
Cranmer Green and Crownland are among the places around Walsham le Willows, a rural village, that the same teams cover, throughout IP postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts IP31 3, and the van gets there quickest.
Moving your car isn't needed. We drain it where it is — a side street near Walsham Le Willows Memorial Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Long Plantation, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of The Grove, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Walsham le Willows drivers, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Suffolk: keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.