$8,000 to replace this? You have to be joking.

During my usual morning briefing with Greg Jardine, our BDM for Western Australia, I was told of another palava which occurred with a very respectable transport company in the North West of WA.

Over 3 months they had 3 SCR failures from contaminated Diesel Exhaust Fluid. Notwithstanding the cost of replacing the sensors and labour charges, the company had to find replacement vehicles while part of their own fleet was immobilised.

Furthermore, the Diesel Exhaust Fluid was indeed AdBlue. This absolutely astounds me. How can a tested and certified (legitimately) product cause so much of an issue?

Well, it has two possible origins;

1. The transport company is not following protocol and correct procedure by not cleaning the nozzles or by letting a foreign matter into the AdBlue tank. This can happen in isolation, but to have it happen 3 times is unusual.
2. The AdBlue itself is out of spec. This is more concerning. The OEM's are wising up to the lack of compliance and are insisting on seeing valid certificates before repairing the problem under warranty.

What can you do to ensure trouble free trucking?

Insist on certified AdBlue at all times, request a copy of the certificate of analysis from your supplier and check the dates when it was tested. It is rare to have the certificate more than 2 months old and in all honesty should be no more than a month if you are a high volume user.

Incidentally I have seen more of the low quality urea hit Australian shores over the last few months. If you see cloudy or off colour AdBlue, don't use it. Ask for the certificate and ensure it's within date range.

Lastly, if it's not AdBlue, it's not for you...

AUSblue is a national manufacturer and supplier of AdBlue. For further details please feel free to contact me anytime.