How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Digswell Park
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Digswell Park, finding it before the engine runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Digswell Park and The Frythe carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Digswell Park: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Oakdale, or at The Hedgehog on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's seconds, be it in Digswell Water or bang in the heart of Digswell Park.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Digswell Park or a driveway out in Digswell. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing 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.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Welwyn North? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Hertfordshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Kirklands.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is 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.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Digswell Park: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at BP, Esso or another forecourt will usually help to push the car away when you ask. Your own driveway around Digswell Park is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the A1(M) — under a mile out of Digswell Park — at the next junction. 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 Digswell Park.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in Digswell Park
By Homerswood Primary and Nursery School, near St John The Evangelist or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the answers determine this work and our quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then your tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before we go.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Digswell Park and where it is
Digswell Park is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated lakeside near Digswell Water and overlooking the surrounding countryside. Digswell Park sits at an elevation of 86 metres, approximately 21.7 miles from London and 7.2 miles from the city of St Albans. Digswell Park is characterized by its terraced housing and proximity to nearby places such as Haldens and Sherrardspark.
AdBlue drains around Digswell Park and across Hertfordshire
Throughout AL postcodes, the vans that cover Digswell Park — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Sherrardspark and Haldens among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting AL8 7.
The car remains put. Anywhere it stands — near Monks Walk Youth Centre, in a layby en route to Digswell Lake Nature Reserve, at home — that is where it is cleared. Assuming doesn't help at the back of The Vineyard Barn, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Digswell Park motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Hertfordshire.