AdBlue…how to detect when you’ve got diesel oil contamination in your truck’s AdBlue tank

Not that long ago I was sitting with a whole bunch of truck operators in a somewhat noisy and overcrowded restaurant in Lyons having watched Man United score a late equaliser against Olympic Lyons in the Champions league (But that’s another story..) Anyway there was Biglorryblog, amiably chatting to a fleet engineer from a major truck rental company (begins with an ‘F’) and he mentioned the problems of people putting diesel in the AdBlue tanks. “You can’t do it!” piped up another operator who was listening in to the conversation, before adding: “You can’t get the diesel pump spout into the AdBlue tank filler neck–they’re different sizes.” My thoughts exactly….but my rental friend calmly came back with a sobering response…”You don’t have to. You only need to stick the nozzle into the hole pull the trigger and the splash-back from the gun as the cut-out works still goes into the tank and it’s enough to ruin the AdBlue…” Well I have to admit that was a new one on me, I had no idea it was that sensitive to contamination, not least by diesel. Did you know that Martin H? 

 

Anyway having once again discovered that things in life are not as straightforward as they seem I’ve been sent the following news release which goes some way to tackling the problem—i.e. if you can’t stop people contaminating your AdBlue with derv, at least you can check to see if it’s happened. For MACHEREY-NAGEL have come up with an oil test paper for those of you with Euro-4 and 5 trucks running with SCR who might be worried that some clot’s put diesel in your AdBlue tank. And there it is above. See it changing colour?

 

According to the manufacturer it’s “…the optimal tool for easy and quick detection of diesel oil in AdBlue tanks. Regarding the emission standard Euro-5 the urea dilution is necessary for the catalyst to reduce emissions. A wrong fuelling of the AdBlue tank with diesel oil may cause expensive damage. This often leads to false warranty claims, because wrong fuelling is difficult to detect.”

 

Now click through here to find out how it’s all done—and and an ironic aside concerning a blown-up version of the picture above!

 

 

The company says: “With oil test paper the detection of diesel oil in AdBlue tanks is quick and easy. The test paper is moved back and forth in the tank 3-5 times. A dark coloration of the test paper indicates the presence of diesel oil. Oil test paper guarantees easy and quick applications with reliable results. It perfectly meets the needs of workshops and truck drivers.”

 

Machery-Nagel is the German manufacturer of special products for analytical chemistry. Apart from a large variety of different ‘dip & read’ tests and rapid tests it also has a comprehensive program of products for filtration, water analysis, chromatography and bioanalysis, employing more than boffins to develop “special solutions for individual analytical tasks.”

 

All of which is great except that I was somewhat surprised to see that the truck used in the accompanying photograph of the contamination test kit is in fact a Scania…and as all BLB readers know Scanias use…errr…EGR. At least it’s EGR for everything below the mighty 16-litre V8 models which have SCR to meet Euro-4/5. So let’s just assume the one in the picture above is a V8…OK?

 

And for a pie…who can give me the eaiest way to get some contaminated AdBlue onto the ‘dip and read’ paper. Do you:

 

a) Roll the test paper strip up like a ciggie and tape it to a piece of wire then push it down the filler hole–then pull it out again?

b) Use a bit of plastic brewing tube and syphon some of the AdBlue out into a jug then dip the paper into it, before pouring the AdBlue back into the tank.

c)  None of the above because it’s a lot easier..

 

And here’s something for Martin H too—Please ask Tde B or Chris Haynes what’s the best way to flush out a contaminated AdBlue tank?