AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Danesbury: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Danesbury. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Danesbury and Ayot St Peter carry, with diesel for the 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.
Every tank has one filler of its own. 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 goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. It's in the gap that the error happens.
Danesbury: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Grange Hill, or on the way home in the car park at Rose & Crown.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Welwyn or the heart of Danesbury: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Danesbury or a drive out in Digswell. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits 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 — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Welwyn North.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Hertfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of B656, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it 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 once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Danesbury already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor remains off. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Danesbury.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Danesbury lies under a mile from the A1(M); there, use the first exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Danesbury makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to St Albans — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Danesbury: what takes place when our engineers arrive
By Welwyn St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, close to St Mary the Virgin or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the answers settle the work and the quote. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Danesbury and where it is
Danesbury is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 77 metres, with Detached housing being the predominant type. Danesbury lies approximately 22.8 miles from London and 7.7 miles from the nearest city, St Albans. Danesbury is close to nearby places such as Welwyn, Oaklands, and Digswell Park, and has a population of around 2537 residents. Danesbury forms part of the wider suburban landscape of Hertfordshire, with its riverside setting contributing to its character.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Danesbury included
Being a residential suburb, Danesbury shares its vans nearby areas — Oaklands, Digswell Park — right through AL postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode that starts AL6 9, and our van arrives quickest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Danesbury Fernery, a side street near Welwyn Evangelical Church: we drain the vehicle where it is. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Van Gogh.
In short, for Danesbury drivers
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Hertfordshire.