Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Harpenden: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the car is around Harpenden. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Harpenden and Thrales End carry a second liquid as well. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, again and again. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Harpenden: how it occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off High Street, or heading home in the car park outside Old Cock Inn.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. Harpenden Common or the heart of Harpenden: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Harpenden forecourt or a drive out in Bower Heath, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere across Hertfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Rothamsted Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Harpenden?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — BP, Esso or another — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Harpenden, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. On the M1, under 3 miles from Harpenden, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Harpenden.
Our arrival around Harpenden, and what occurs next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether by St Nicholas CofE VA Primary School, beside St Nicholas's Church or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The replies decide this work and the price, and so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you have had the quote over the phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Harpenden itself
Harpenden is a town in Hertfordshire, situated near the lakes and rivers of the Eastern region, with Harpenden Common and other green spaces nearby. Harpenden sits at an elevation of around 108 metres, close to the city of St Albans and approximately 23.5 miles from London. Harpenden has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by detached homes, with nearby areas including Batford and Hatching Green. Harpenden is home to around 18,031 people, according to recent estimates.
Harpenden and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Harpenden is a town, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Batford and Hatching Green among them, across the AL postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning AL5 2, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift your car. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by The Roman Catholic Church Of Our Lady Of Lourdes, or a layby on the way to Lydekker Park. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Harpenden Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Harpenden drivers
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.