Ashwell: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Ashwell, finding it before your motor runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven about Ashwell and Odsey carry a second fluid as well. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Ashwell
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Kingsland Way, or on the way home in the car park outside The Three Tuns.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Ashwell End or right in the centre of Ashwell.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt in Ashwell or a driveway out in Gatley End. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Ashwell & Morden.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, wherever in Hertfordshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Silver Court, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ashwell already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Ashwell Garage, BP or any other — the staff will normally help roll your car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Ashwell.
When your motor has run already, stop safely and turn the car off. Ashwell sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); on it, take the first junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Ashwell is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Cambridge — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers get there around Ashwell
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Ashwell Primary School, near Ashwell United Reform Chapel or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since the answers settle this work and the price. No one sets off before you have had our price by phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ashwell itself
Ashwell is a village in Hertfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Cam, with Ashwell being surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby settlements like Ashwell End and Bury End. Ashwell sits at an elevation of 53 metres, making it a relatively low-lying area, and Ashwell is located near the city of Cambridge, which is 16 miles away. Ashwell has a population of around 1267 people, with Ashwell being characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock.
Ashwell and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout SG postcodes, the vans covering Ashwell — a village — work the nearby places too, Bury End and Red Barns among them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SG7 5.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. The drain happens right there, whether a drive, a street by St Mary (Ashwell Parish Church), or a layby towards Ashwell Springs. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Ashwell Village Museum.
The short version for Ashwell people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Hertfordshire.