Wood End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Wood End. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen about Wood End and Earith carry a second fluid too. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Wood End
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Nobles Lane before work, or in the car park at The White Swan on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Bluntisham or the heart of Wood End: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Wood End forecourt or a drive out in Colnefields, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Huntingdon? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Cambridgeshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Wood End.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Wood End: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
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. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, Somersham Fast Fit - Cole & Day or another — the attendants will normally help roll the car away, when you ask. On your own drive in Wood End? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Wood End lies under 10 miles from the M11; on it, take the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Wood End makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Ely — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Wood End, and what occurs next
By St Helen's Primary School, close to Baptist Meeting House or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set both work and quote. Nobody heads out until you've heard the price by phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Wood End, for a moment
Wood End is a suburban area in Cambridgeshire, situated inland at an elevation of 31 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Wood End lies approximately 11.4 miles from the city of Ely and 58.9 miles from London, placing it in a relatively rural setting. Wood End is surrounded by nearby places such as Bluntisham, East End, and Colne, and has a population of around 1621 residents. Wood End's location in the Eastern region of England contributes to its character as a quiet suburban community.
Wood End and Cambridgeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
East End and Colne are among the places around Wood End, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over PE postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning PE28 3, and the van arrives quickest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Meridian Wood, a side street near David Morris Community Room: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bluntisham Village Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Wood End drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Cambridgeshire.