AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Caldecote Hill: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when your engine hasn't run, it's drained and fully cleaned where the vehicle is around Caldecote Hill. Reading in advance? In that case the rest explains why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many current diesels on the roads round Caldecote Hill and Stanmore carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Caldecote Hill: how it happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Clay Lane, or outside Three Crowns on the way home after work.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. Bushey Heath or the heart of Caldecote Hill: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Letchmore Heath or a forecourt around Caldecote Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bushey? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Hertfordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Willow Dene, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Caldecote Hill already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the Canons Corner or somewhere else. Your own driveway in Caldecote Hill is the place it stays.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. On the M1, under a mile from Caldecote Hill, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Caldecote Hill.
Caldecote Hill: what occurs when we get there
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Church of St Peter, or by Bushey Heath Primary School. Which fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set the work and quote. Nobody sets off before you've had the quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts 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. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and confirm that it is running properly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Caldecote Hill
Caldecote Hill is a locality in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 144 metres, approximately 12.6 miles from London. Caldecote Hill lies near several nearby places, including Bushey Heath, Bushey, and Elstree, and is close to the city of St Albans, which is 7.9 miles away. Caldecote Hill is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, which reflects the area's residential nature.
AdBlue drains about Caldecote Hill, and Hertfordshire beyond
Over WD postcodes, the vans that cover Caldecote Hill — a small village — work the surrounding locations too, Elstree and Bushey among them. Quickest of all: quote a WD23 1 postcode to our van.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a street by Bentley Priory Museum, or a layby towards Local Wildlife Site (Herts LA). Assuming won't help behind Goat, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Caldecote Hill motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.