My apologies if this subject has been covered here before; but my questions are: has anyone on here ran a vehicle completely out of Ad Blue, and if so what were the consequences? (To the vehicle, not the driver).
My reason for asking is that I went out on a recovery last night and used our Actros, I noticed before setting off that it had half a tank of fuel and 6.5 Gal of Ad Blue. I didn’t think it would be a problem as the job would be no more than 100 miles round trip.
Anyway, after 20 mins or so the dash lights up telling me that I’m on Ad Blue reserve (with nowhere near to fill up). I didn’t know quite what to expect engine wise, but absolutely nothing untoward happened. I eventually made it to Colsterworth which incidentally has the worst Ad Blue pump in history as it clicks off every half litre or so and managed to put 97 litres, that’s right 97 litres in it. That lead me to believe it has a 100 ltr tank and I hadn’t ran it completely out.
Anyhoo I digress, so has anybody ran completely out then?
nothing except a bunch of sandal wearing ecco loving nutters running after you waving pitchforks and cabbages shouting how they cant breath because of your admissions.
Oh and you get another pretty light on dash and if you had kept going your engine may have dropped into limp home mode.
the maoster:
My apologies if this subject has been covered here before; but my questions are: has anyone on here ran a vehicle completely out of Ad Blue, and if so what were the consequences? (To the vehicle, not the driver).
My reason for asking is that I went out on a recovery last night and used our Actros, I noticed before setting off that it had half a tank of fuel and 6.5 Gal of Ad Blue. I didn’t think it would be a problem as the job would be no more than 100 miles round trip.
Anyway, after 20 mins or so the dash lights up telling me that I’m on Ad Blue reserve (with nowhere near to fill up). I didn’t know quite what to expect engine wise, but absolutely nothing untoward happened. I eventually made it to Colsterworth which incidentally has the worst Ad Blue pump in history as it clicks off every half litre or so and managed to put 97 litres, that’s right 97 litres in it. That lead me to believe it has a 100 ltr tank and I hadn’t ran it completely out.
Anyhoo I digress, so has anybody ran completely out then?
The only thing that would happen over time is the Add blue pump would go nacket. this is due to the Add blue lubbing the pump so if you wanted for a short time is just use water. Add blue is put in after the enine burn on the out let side of your exhaust.
Peter
I ran out of adblue fully whilst away from the yard last month (they hadn’t ordered anymore in and didn’t want me to buy any on the road) and there was a consequence - when it ran out it flashed up empty (I have a Merc Axor) and went into restricted engine performance (like limp mode in a car) which meant on accelerating or hitting a hill it was like there was no turbo and was hard work keeping up with the flow of traffic, so I pulled in to the next services and bought 20L of adblue as I felt it was unsafe to run without it and all was fine again…so is possible I would try not to totally run out of it 
Don’t know if it has the same effect with other units but this is what happened with mine.
cheesey:
nothing except a bunch of sandal wearing ecco loving nutters running after you waving pitchforks and cabbages shouting how they cant breath because of your admissions.
Oh and you get another pretty light on dash and if you had kept going your engine may have dropped into limp home mode.
That is one the funniest things i have read on here! 
A fellow driver once told me if you run out of Adblue, you can ■■■■ in the tank and it will get you going again no problem!!! He also was telling me about the time Tesco had to cone off a bay either side of him because he was out of time!!!
with our renault premiums if you’ve used the reserve you get a yellow light on the dash and the LCD says 45hrs till engine explodes or something like that and you loose power as well.
was also under the impressions if your pulled for a routine and you have no adblue in the tank your could be in a spot of bother and £30 lighter?? may be not i dont know
From various sites that I trust.
The SCRT® - Selective Catalytic Reduction + Continuously Regenerating Trap - depends upon the use of AdBlue® for the selective catalytic reduction and upon regeneration of the filter in the CRT® to prevent large accumulations of soot and eventual filter blockage. Use of the incorrect reducing agent, poor vehicle maintenance, excessive engine smoke, oil consumption or high sulphur fuel can prevent the SCRT® system from operating satisfactorily.
AdBlue®
The industry standard AdBlue®, an aqueous solution of urea, is used as the reducing agent in the SCRT®. Without AdBlue®, the system will not function correctly and remove NOX from the exhaust gas.Only AdBlue® and no other reducing agent should be used in the SCRT® system.
The AdBlue® level should be checked regularly and each time the vehicle is re-fuelled to ensure the tank does not run dry any time during vehicle operation.
NB. The vehicle will continue to operate without AdBlue® but the SCRT® will not function correctly and remove NOX from the exhaust gas. No damage will be caused in this situation.The freezing point of AdBlue® is -11°C. In extreme cold environments it is possible the AdBlue® stored on the vehicle could freeze. Procedures to prevent this from happening should be taken as freezing could cause damage to the storage tank and will prevent the SCRT® system from functioning correctly.
I don’t believe there is any penalty in the UK for failing to have AdBlue in the reservoir as we do not yet run only Euro 4 or 5. I believe the emissions of a Euro 5 will just drop back to Euro 3 levels and upset the lentil eaters.
If a vehicle does drop into limp mode I think that may be only to protect the pump running dry, after all you wouldn’t keep your finger on the washer pump with no water in the bottle would you? It is a £30 fine for failing to keep your washer bottle full though 
Wobble:
A fellow driver once told me if you run out of Adblue, you can ■■■■ in the tank and it will get you going again no problem!!! He also was telling me about the time Tesco had to cone off a bay either side of him because he was out of time!!!
You may laugh but I have seen a driver pee in the ad blue tank, fillin up at Chippenham a couple of weeks back truck pulled on the pump next to me and started filling with diesel looked over and he was peeing in the ad blue tank 
said he did it every day (saves buying a couple of litres I suppose)
the maoster:
My apologies if this subject has been covered here before; but my questions are: has anyone on here ran a vehicle completely out of Ad Blue, and if so what were the consequences? (To the vehicle, not the driver).
My reason for asking is that I went out on a recovery last night and used our Actros, I noticed before setting off that it had half a tank of fuel and 6.5 Gal of Ad Blue. I didn’t think it would be a problem as the job would be no more than 100 miles round trip.
Anyway, after 20 mins or so the dash lights up telling me that I’m on Ad Blue reserve (with nowhere near to fill up). I didn’t know quite what to expect engine wise, but absolutely nothing untoward happened. I eventually made it to Colsterworth which incidentally has the worst Ad Blue pump in history as it clicks off every half litre or so and managed to put 97 litres, that’s right 97 litres in it. That lead me to believe it has a 100 ltr tank and I hadn’t ran it completely out.
Anyhoo I digress, so has anybody ran completely out then?
Soneone may give you the exact technical info and dates but its roughly along the lines of pre 2005 vehicles will generally drive as normal when they run out of adblue. Post 2005/2006 go into a reduced power state. They will still drive ok but will not quite get up to top speed and don;t pull to well on hills. Nothing that would worry you too much but you wouldn;t want to drive round like that all day.
I find the clicking adblue nozzle thing very funny 
It clicks like that because you have not inserted the nozzle fully into the adblue tank neck. If you look into the tank neck you will see a blue plastic collar, you need to insert the nozzle fully into it until it won’t go any further and then it will fill as fast as a derv pump.
mick_n3:
Wobble:
A fellow driver once told me if you run out of Adblue, you can ■■■■ in the tank and it will get you going again no problem!!! He also was telling me about the time Tesco had to cone off a bay either side of him because he was out of time!!!You may laugh but I have seen a driver pee in the ad blue tank, fillin up at Chippenham a couple of weeks back truck pulled on the pump next to me and started filling with diesel looked over and he was peeing in the ad blue tank
How long does it take to ■■■■ 100 litres?
mick_n3:
(saves buying a couple of litres I suppose)
blimey how much coffee do you drink
the only trucks i’ve used with AD-BLU is DAF XF 430 & DAF CF410& they’ve both played up
XF was a hire unit & i picked it up with a full tank that someone had topped up with water because they’d heard ad blue was a scam & water would be ok. i managed to get to Gloucester DAF of which the bill would be £ 3-4000 approx .
Cf was one of our own 8wheelers & AD-BLU pump failure was the cause , although this truck had previously been in because the AD-BLU system had failed & parts had collapsed in side it’s exhaust box 
both time the engine felt restricted & lethargic , a hill i can climb at 40 mph grossed at 32T became a 15mph challenge when i was 18.5 lighter !
water doesn’t work & the bill for getting it wrong is a bigun apparently Taunton DAF have loads of void warranties for trucks that have AD-BLU tanks ‘accidently’ filled with water more than once 
Wheel Nut:
How long does it take to ■■■■ 100 litres?
going by some people on here malc - not very long 
Wobble:
A fellow driver once told me if you run out of Adblue, you can ■■■■ in the tank and it will get you going again no problem!!! He also was telling me about the time Tesco had to cone off a bay either side of him because he was out of time!!!
Yep, drivers do talk a lot of crap, although in this case it seems it was a lot of ■■■■.
Coffeeholic:
Yep, drivers do talk a lot of crap, although in this case it seems it was a lot of ■■■■.
PMSL - quick, get an ad-blu container
Volvos and mercs are fine if they run out. Ivecos cut to 30% power.
Wheel Nut:
How long does it take to ■■■■ 100 litres?
You could always hang a sign off of your mirror;
"Toilet this way.
No [zb]'ing though please - I can’t be bothered to unblock the filler neck, again…"
The Daf I’ve been driving recently isn’t using any Adblue according to the gauge. Any ideas?
44 Tonne Ton:
The Daf I’ve been driving recently isn’t using any Adblue according to the gauge. Any ideas?
Dip the tank. My Daf came with a dipping stick* fixed on a bracket on the back of the cab, I use it quite a lot as we have ridiculously small fuel tanks.
*Some people call it a CB aerial apparently