--- title: Explained: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Wickford canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/wickford-essex/ location: Wickford county: Essex latitude: 51.613210 longitude: 0.520760 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-12 --- # Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wickford AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Wickford, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it for good. ## Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle Many current diesels on the roads about Wickford and Rawreth Shot carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own. Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both side by side under one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two. ## Wickford: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them. To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Market Road, or outside The Quart Pot on the way home that evening. Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not. And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's seconds, whether in Runwell or bang in the heart of Wickford. ## Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler Check these first, at a forecourt in Wickford or a driveway out in Rawreth. Seconds, that's all. - Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position. - The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two. - Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where. - The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which. - Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on. ## How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank Wherever around Essex the light comes on, here is a routine for the day. - Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street. - Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick. - Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle. - Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty. - Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, 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. Skip stage five entirely. ## Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wickford? Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from. Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the BP or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway in Wickford, leave it where it stands. Where your motor has run already, stop safely and switch the vehicle off. Leave the M25 — under 15 miles out of Wickford — at the first exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Wickford makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Chelmsford — so say roughly how far it went. ## What takes place when our engineers get there around Wickford We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Wickford Primary School, close to Wickford Swim and Fitness Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves. After that: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before we leave, we fire it up and confirm that it is running properly. Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way. ## About Wickford, briefly Wickford is a town in Essex, situated on the River Crouch at an elevation of around 11 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Wickford lies approximately 28.8 miles east of London and 8.8 miles southeast of Chelmsford, near the villages of Runwell, Shotgate, and Nevendon. Wickford has a population of around 25,929 people and is a significant residential centre in the area. Wickford's riverside setting has influenced its development over time, with the town expanding along the riverbank. ## Wickford and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area Being a riverside town, Wickford shares its vans nearby areas — Shotgate, Nevendon — right through SS postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting SS12 9 gets our van to you fastest. Your car remains put. Wherever it stands — near St Andrew, WIckford, on a lay-by en route to Nevendon Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Nevenden Centre. ## Wickford people: the short version Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Essex.