Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broadoak End
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and fully cleaned where the vehicle sits in Broadoak End. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Broadoak End and Hertingfordbury 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.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Broadoak End: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Longwood Road before work, or in the car park outside The Golden Griffen heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange car.
Nothing halts the tip after 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 takes place in Waterford or the middle of Broadoak End, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Broadoak End or a driveway out in Bramfield. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 outside Hertford North.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Hertfordshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bramfield Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- 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 diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Broadoak End?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive in Broadoak End? Then your car remains where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. The next junction is where to leave when you're on the A1(M), under 5 miles from Broadoak End. Mileage counts — a short hop across Broadoak End is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards St Albans — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians get there in Broadoak End
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Sele Farm Community Centre, or by Hertford St Andrew CofE Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you've had our price over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our engineers start the car and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Broadoak End itself
Broadoak End is a village in Hertfordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 53 metres, with a mix of housing types although predominantly flat. Broadoak End lies near the cities of St Albans and London, being approximately 10.7 and 20.8 miles away respectively. Broadoak End is close to nearby places such as Waterford, Bengeo, and Hartham, and has a population of around 1131 residents. Broadoak End remains a residential community with a scenic riverside setting.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Broadoak End included
Over SG postcodes, our teams that cover Broadoak End — a village — work the nearby places too, Hartham and Bengeo among them. A postcode starting SG14 2 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Icehouse Wood, a side street near Sele Community Hub: we drain it where it sits. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Michael & All Angels.
For Broadoak End motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.