Garston: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Garston. Here in advance? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels in Woodside, like those in Garston, run on two fluids; the motor gets only the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Garston: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off St Albans Road before work, or in the car park outside The Old Fox Bricket Wood heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in Meriden or the middle of Garston, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Leavesden Green or a forecourt around Garston.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Hertfordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Wilcon Way.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Garston: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Garston.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Garston sits under a mile from the M1; on it, use the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Garston is less work than a run of under 5 miles towards St Albans, so tell us.
When our engineers turn up in Garston, what happens?
By The Grove Academy, near Garston Community Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the replies determine this work and the price. During the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. Once the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Next we start it and check it runs correctly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Garston itself
Garston is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 16.8 miles northwest of London and 4.8 miles southeast of St Albans. Garston sits at an elevation of around 73 metres, in a gently undulating landscape of inland Eastern England. Garston has a population of around 7339 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing, and is near other places such as Meriden, Kingswood, and Old Bricket Wood.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Garston included
As a residential suburb, Garston shares its vans surrounding places — Kingswood, Old Bricket Wood — right through WD postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: give a WD25 0 postcode for our van.
The vehicle stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Garston Park, a side street close to Our Lady and St. Michael's Catholic Church: we drain the car where it is. Assuming won't help at the back of Garston Spiritualist Church, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Garston drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Hertfordshire.