How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broxbourne
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands in Broxbourne, is normally what it needs if caught before the engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many modern diesels on the roads round Broxbourne and Spitalbrook carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The error lives in that gap.
Broxbourne: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Sawells, or on the way home in the car park outside The White Bear.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Broxbourne or out in Keysers Estate.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Nazeing Mead or a forecourt in Broxbourne.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark what goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not in a rush beside Bell Lane on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's 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 vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Broxbourne already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the murco or somewhere else. At home in Broxbourne? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Broxbourne lies under 5 miles from the M25; on it, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Broxbourne is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles to St Albans, so say.
When our technicians get there around Broxbourne, what takes place?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Broxbourne CofE Primary School, near United Reform Church Broxbourne or on your own driveway. Those replies settle this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears out on its own, however long it sits. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Broxbourne
Broxbourne is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated on the River Lea at an elevation of 37 metres. Broxbourne lies approximately 16.8 miles north of London and is close to the nearby settlements of Keysers Estate, Wormley, and Wormleybury. Broxbourne has a population of around 4282 people and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Broxbourne is also near the city of St Albans, which is 13.5 miles away.
Broxbourne and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout EN postcodes, our teams covering Broxbourne — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Wormleybury and Wormley among them. Quickest of all: give a EN10 7 postcode to our van.
The vehicle remains where it is. The drain takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by Broxbourne Parish Church (St Augustine's), or a layby on the way to Broxbourne Sports Club. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Broxbourne Rowing Club.
In short, for Broxbourne motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.