AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Batchworth Heath: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Batchworth Heath, catching it before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Eastbury, as well as Batchworth Heath, run on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Batchworth Heath: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off London Road, or outside Prince of Wales on the way home that evening.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Moor Park or the middle of Batchworth Heath, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Batchworth or a forecourt in Batchworth Heath, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Rickmansworth, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Rickmansworth Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Batchworth Heath?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Batchworth Heath.
Already run? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. Batchworth Heath sits under 3 miles from the M25; on it, take the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Batchworth Heath is less work than a trip of under 15 miles to St Albans, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Batchworth Heath, and what takes place next
The van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Northwood Cricket Club, or outside Holy Trinity CofE Primary School. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide both work and price. Nobody sets off until you have heard our quote over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Next our technicians start the car and check it runs correctly before we go.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Batchworth Heath itself
Batchworth Heath is a locality in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 108 metres, approximately 15.6 miles from London. Batchworth Heath is characterized by its flat housing, which dominates the local landscape. Batchworth Heath is close to several nearby places, including Moor Park, Northwood, and Woodcock Hill, and is about 10.2 miles from the city of St Albans. Batchworth Heath has a population of around 841 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Batchworth Heath included
Northwood and Woodcock Hill are among the towns near Batchworth Heath, a small village, that the same teams cover, throughout HA postcodes. A postcode starting HA6 2 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Holy Trinity Church Hall, or a layby on the way to Garden of Remembrance. Assuming won't help at the back of Holy Trinity Church, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
In short, for Batchworth Heath people
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Hertfordshire.