Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Berkhamsted: Why It Occurs
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your car stands in Berkhamsted, is normally what it takes when found before your motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Berkhamsted and Rossway Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Berkhamsted?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Queens Road, or heading home in the car park at The Lamb.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether in Shootersway or right in the heart of Berkhamsted.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Berkhamsted forecourt or a driveway over in Norcott Hill, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere across Hertfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Sheldon Way.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Berkhamsted?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will usually help to push your car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Berkhamsted.
When your motor has run already, pull over safely and turn the vehicle off. Berkhamsted sits under 10 miles from the M1; on it, use the first junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Berkhamsted makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to St Albans — so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there in Berkhamsted, what occurs?
Outside St Thomas More Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy, near Way Inn Open Door or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The replies decide the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters 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. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Berkhamsted itself
Berkhamsted is a town in Hertfordshire, situated on the River Bulbourne and Grand Union Canal, with a mix of old and new buildings. Berkhamsted sits at an elevation of 113 metres, approximately 26 miles northwest of London, and is near the villages of Shootersway, Northchurch, and Dudswell. Berkhamsted has a population of around 16479 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Berkhamsted is close to the city of St Albans, which is about 10 miles away.
Berkhamsted and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a riverside town, Berkhamsted has the same vans as nearby areas — Northchurch, Dudswell — all the way through HP postcodes and the wider area around them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HP4 1.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near Sacred Heart Catholic Church, a lay-by on the way to Lagley Meadow Recreation Ground, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of All Saints? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
Berkhamsted drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.