It only takes 5ml of Diesel to 20 litres of AdBlue in the AdBlue tank to turn it into a harmful paste. A problem that is any vehicle owner’s worst nightmare. The first bit of advice that I can offer you is don’t attempt to drive off the forecourt and call your breakdown company right away!

In order to comply with new emission standards, the automotive industry has decided to introduce SCR technology to diesel-powered vehicles. SCR stands for "Selective Catalytic Reduction" and simply put means that the catalytic convertor transforms harmful exhaust gases into naturally occurring substances.

Mis-fuelling any vehicle can have catastrophic effects on the SCR systems dosing unit and catalytic converter, which puts the truck into limp home mode which is not good for the driver or their bank balance. Even minimal damage means the replacement of the dosing unit, more extensive damage can result in the replacement of the SCR system.

A leading UK manufacturer has indicated that 50% of call-outs are as a result of cross contamination the other 50% being accidents.

In most instances insurance companies won’t cover the mis-fuelling of your vehicle, so you could be left thousands of pounds out of pocket. Not a nice price to pay for a moment’s lapse of concentration.

Filling Stations do have the option to provide special magnetic nozzles that work in combination with the Adblue spout filler, but at the moment they are not legally obliged to do this – so the chances of mis-fuelling your Adblue tank are increased. However, there are preventative products on the market that can help to stop you mis-fuelling your AdBlue fuelled vehicle and for a small investment you can save yourself a large repair bill and downtime of your vehicle.

AdBlue Key is a built-in mechanism which only opens when the AdBlue nozzle is inserted (manual fill or pumped), the Key has been designed so that if you do try to put Diesel into the Key and any Diesel is released, it will run off through the drain off holes and none can enter the AdBlue tank .Adblue Key is made of the same polyoxymethylene (POM) materials as the rest of the SCR system, conforming to the same rigorous testing.