Bamville Wood: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Bamville Wood. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — but many newer diesels driven round Bamville Wood and Harpenden Common hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Bamville Wood
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Bamville Wood, or heading home in the car park outside The Engineer.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether in Hatching Green or right in the centre of Bamville Wood.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Childwick Bury or a forecourt in Bamville Wood.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Harpenden.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Hertfordshire — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cross Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bamville Wood already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Texaco, the BP or somewhere else. Your own drive around Bamville Wood is the place it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. On the M1, under 3 miles from Bamville Wood, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Bamville Wood is smaller a job than a trip of under 5 miles to St Albans, and so say.
When our engineers turn up around Bamville Wood, what happens?
By The Grove Infant and Nursery School, near St John The Baptist's Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the replies set both work and price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Bamville Wood and where it is
Bamville Wood is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 22 miles north of London and 3 miles east of St Albans. Bamville Wood sits in a relatively elevated position at around 132 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Bamville Wood is close to other nearby places such as Hatching Green, Ayres End, and Childwick Green, and has a population of around 924 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Bamville Wood included
Ayres End and Childwick Green are among the towns around Bamville Wood, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout AL postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning AL5 1, and our van arrives fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Harpenden Common Golf Course, a side street near Parish Church of Saint John the Baptist: we drain the vehicle where it sits. Guessing won't help behind Southdown Methodist Church, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Bamville Wood motorists
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.