Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Welshwood Park: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where the vehicle stands around Welshwood Park, is usually all it takes when caught before the motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of newer diesels driven around Welshwood Park and Greenstead carry another liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
Welshwood Park: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Woodlands, or on the way home in the car park outside The Friar.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. It takes seconds, whether in Parsons Heath or bang in the heart of Welshwood Park.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Welshwood Park or a drive out in Crockleford Heath. Seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Hythe? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever across Essex, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Welshwood Park Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Welshwood Park?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — BP, Tesco or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Welshwood Park.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M11 — under 50 miles out of Welshwood Park — at the first junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Welshwood Park makes a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Colchester — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Welshwood Park, and what occurs next
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by Roach Vale Primary School, beside Parsons Heath Baptist Church or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. No one sets off before you have had the price over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour once we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Welshwood Park, for a moment
Welshwood Park is a suburban area located on the riverside in Essex, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Welshwood Park sits near the city of Colchester, approximately 2.1 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Parsons Heath and Crockleford Hill. Welshwood Park has a population of around 1751 residents and is situated at an elevation of 36 metres, providing views of the surrounding countryside. Welshwood Park is also within commuting distance of London, being around 53.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Welshwood Park and across Essex
Over CO postcodes, our teams covering Welshwood Park — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Fox Street and Crockleford Hill included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CO4 3.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a road by St Matthew, Colchester, or a lay-by towards Welsh Wood. Assuming won't help at the back of Greenstead Evangelical Free Church, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Welshwood Park drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Essex: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.