Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bushey Heath: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle is in Bushey Heath. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Bushey Heath and Carpenders Park run, with diesel feeding the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Bushey Heath
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off The Rutts, or on the way home in the car park outside Three Crowns.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, be it in Caldecote Hill or right in the heart of Bushey Heath.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Harrow Weald or a forecourt in Bushey Heath.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Carpenders Park.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Hertfordshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of High Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bushey Heath?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the Costco or somewhere else. At home in Bushey Heath? So your car stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M1, under a mile from Bushey Heath, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Bushey Heath is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards St Albans — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Bushey Heath, and what occurs next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Bushey Heath Primary School, near Church of St Peter or on your own drive. Those replies settle the work and the quote, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. Hence it counts more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before we go.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bushey Heath
Bushey Heath is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated near several lakes and reservoirs, including those around Caldecote Hill. Bushey Heath sits at an elevation of 157 metres, with views towards the surrounding countryside and the London skyline. Bushey Heath is located close to the cities of St Albans and London, with nearby places including Bushey and Stanmore. Bushey Heath has a population of around 5376 people, predominantly living in flat accommodation.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Bushey Heath included
Over WD postcodes, our teams covering Bushey Heath — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Stanmore and Bushey among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting WD23 1.
Your car doesn't need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Bushey Library, a lay-by on the way to Mary Forsdyke Gardens, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Bentley Priory Museum, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Bushey Heath motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.