i’m looking at getting a car that I will eventually bring with me from uk to france when I relocate early 2026. one of the ones I am considering is a peugeot 3008 2.0 HDi circa 2018. online I read a lot of problems with adblue systems in higher mileage ones. adblue delete would seem to fix this problem. in the UK its not legal but cannot be detected at MOT so its very common. from what I have read it seems to be the same story in france and controle technique - not legal but not detectable upon CT. anyone got any personal experience with this? adblue repairs can be very costly.
adblue delete is when the ecu is reprogrammed (by specialists) to remove the operation of the adblue system. any error messages and drive limit restrictions are removed negating the need for a repair to the adblue system itself. I know its not detectable by the MOT in the UK, and I believe that is the same case in france, but looking for any personal experiences.
yes I am of a mind to not get a car with adblue at all, so I’m just looking into this option to see whats possible. the post 2017 1.6 puretech engines seem to have a reasonable reputation. yes the 1.2 puretech - avoid like the plague.
I have a Fiat Ducato based camping-car which has an adblue system and works fine.
There are always problems with vehicles be it adblue or not. Personally I think the fear of an adblue system is unnecessary panic, there are millions of vehicles that use it without a problem.
using adblue delete on a vehicule does not cause the vehicle to fail emissions regulations in an MOT, so there’s nothing morally ambiguous there as you are implying. if it did cause emissions regulations failure there would be no market for it. what it does do is allow consumers to save thousands of pounds in adblue repair bills.
what is not a “good look” is the chronically insufficient design of the adblue systems provided by the major vehicle manufacturers, and the way they deliberately design them to be eye-wateringly expensive to repair. causing many to sell off the vehicle prematurely. there’s nothing green about that.
But it stops the vehicle complying with Euro 6. The fact that the MOT doesn’t pick it up is irrelevant. I agree with Badger. If you are so against using Adblue the answer is simple, don’t buy a vehicle that needs to use it. Setting out to ignore or bypass the laws of the country you are hoping to move to is a really bad look in my opinion.
There clearly is. Adblue reduces NOx emissions so by running an engine without it you are increasing that pollution. It’s not relevant that it’s not measured in an MoT test.
According to the AA…
Your wish to evade it’s use is therefore a morally indefensible choice.
I think it is probably a bit more subtle but overall I agree with @David_M_Matthews and @Badger - if deleting the engine AdBlue checks means your car is outside it’s Euro category emissions limits and you are doing it simply because you somehow disagree with the system or don’t want to buy the urea solution then it’s not really on. Motoring has certain costs which you need to take account of when buying a vehicle. As David says it’s not as if every car available needs AdBlue.
That said, if someone has a faulty system and is genuinely facing large costs to fix an issue that doesn’t really give the driver any direct benefit - I can see the temptation to “solve” the problem by making the ECU ignore it.
All of which might be true but does not excuse disabling it just because you don’t like it if the result is your car no longer meets its emissions specifications.
So don’t buy a diesel. The problems I’ve read about have all been to do with motorcaravanners. Not one of them knew about adblue and most of them ran the tank empty, got scary error messages then went into limp mode. Mind you as they were all on YouTube it might just have been clickbait.
Seconded on dont buy a diesel, their days are numbered any way you cut it. A relation had issue with his small van and the halfwit at the local garage charged him quite a lot to not fix the fault bu changing un related parts. Eventually another garage who knew what he was doing changed the faulty dosing pump, was not really that expensive compared to the idiot prior. I will ask the cost of the dosing unit.
You are right that the CT does not detect NOx particles at the exhaust. So yes, by all means do it - be-it on your own head! It is in France quite legal to delete adblue from the ECU. But illegal to drive the same car on the public road, with the penalty being a 7,500€ fine, car removed from the road and a note ‘on the system’ that said car can never be sold on - ie you might as well have the local yard take it away, and because it cannot be driven, the scrap man will charge you according to how ugly s/he thinks you are
Do not by any means think that after moving here, you are going to be treated like royalty. Those days are long gone. The average Le Pen supporting CT chap will see you as a foreigner with a beat up brexshit car and if there is a chance to put you down, s/he will do so!
