Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dunstable: Why It Occurs
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully cleaned where the car is around Dunstable. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Dunstable and Stipers Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Dunstable: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off High Street North, or outside The Old Sugar Loaf on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether out in California or bang in the centre of Dunstable.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Houghton Regis or a forecourt in Dunstable.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — at Leagrave's car park, say — not when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Bedfordshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Queensway.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Dunstable?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Leave your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the BP, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump. Your own drive around Dunstable is the place it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Dunstable lies under 3 miles from the M1; on it, take the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Dunstable is smaller work than a trip of under 15 miles towards St Albans, and so tell us.
What occurs when we get there around Dunstable
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Dunstable Icknield Lower School, close to Dunstable Conference Centre or on your own drive. The answers decide this work and the price, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians head off.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Dunstable
Dunstable is a town in Bedfordshire, situated in the Eastern region of England, with a population of around 27323 people. Dunstable sits inland, approximately 146 metres above sea level, and is located about 31.3 miles northwest of London. Dunstable is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as California, Beecroft, and Downside. Dunstable is also near the city of St Albans, which is about 12.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Dunstable and across Bedfordshire
Beecroft and Downside are among the towns around Dunstable, a town, that the same vans cover, over LU postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts LU6 1, and the van arrives quickest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it stands — near United Reformed Church, on a layby heading to Grove House Gardens, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Christ Church Dunstable.
For Dunstable drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Bedfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.