How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bishops Stortford
Keep the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, if your engine has not run, it is drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle is in Bishops Stortford. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Bishops Stortford and Thorley Houses carry, with diesel feeding the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
Bishops Stortford: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Bridge Street, perhaps outside The Black Lion on the way home after work.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. It's seconds, whether out in Hockerill or right in the centre of Bishops Stortford.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt in Bishops Stortford or a drive out in Thorley. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is around Hertfordshire — a routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Devoils Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bishops Stortford?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your 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 pulled from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Sainsbury's or another — the attendants will usually help roll the car away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Bishops Stortford, leave the vehicle where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means where to leave if you are on the M11, under 3 miles from Bishops Stortford. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Bishops Stortford makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Chelmsford — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Bishops Stortford, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Windhill21, close to Jackson Square or on your own driveway. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies set the work and price. No one heads out before you've heard the price over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Bishops Stortford, for a moment
Bishops Stortford is a town in Hertfordshire, situated on the River Stort and the River Lea, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential areas. Bishops Stortford sits at an elevation of around 63 metres, approximately 28 miles north-east of London. Bishops Stortford has a number of nearby neighbourhoods, including Hockerill, New Town, and Thorley Street, and is close to the city of Chelmsford. Bishops Stortford is home to around 25,000 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains around Bishops Stortford and across Hertfordshire
New Town and Thorley Street are among the places near Bishops Stortford, a riverside town, that the same teams cover, throughout CM postcodes. Fastest of all: give a CM23 3 postcode to our van.
The car stays where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near TK Maxx, a lay-by on the way to Castle Gardens, a driveway. Guessing won't help behind Bishops Stortford Library, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Bishops Stortford drivers
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Hertfordshire.