Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hatfield Broad Oak
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Hatfield Broad Oak. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Greenhill, as well as Hatfield Broad Oak, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors 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 pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Hatfield Broad Oak?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Cage End before work, or in the car park at The Cock on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it happens in Needham Green or the middle of Hatfield Broad Oak, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Hatfield Heath or a forecourt around Hatfield Broad Oak, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you 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 Sawbridgeworth.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Essex the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Hatfield Broad Oak: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The staff at BP, Esso or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away when asked. Your own drive around Hatfield Broad Oak is where it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is where to come off if you're on the M11, under 3 miles from Hatfield Broad Oak. Distance counts — a quick hop across Hatfield Broad Oak is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Chelmsford — so say about how far it went.
What takes place when we arrive in Hatfield Broad Oak
Wherever your car came to rest, whether outside St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Hatfield Broad Oak, near St Mary the Virgin, Hatfield Broad Oak or on your own drive, our van comes to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since the replies determine the work and the quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that our technicians start it and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Hatfield Broad Oak and where it is
Hatfield Broad Oak is a village in Essex, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 77 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Hatfield Broad Oak lies near several smaller settlements, including Needham Green, The Ryes, and Taverners Green, and is approximately 11.7 miles from Chelmsford. Hatfield Broad Oak has a population of around 620 people and is located about 27.1 miles from London. Hatfield Broad Oak is a small community in the Eastern region of England.
AdBlue drains around Hatfield Broad Oak and across Essex
Over CM postcodes, the vans that cover Hatfield Broad Oak — a village — work the surrounding places too, Taverners Green and The Ryes included. A postcode starting CM22 7 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to move. Wherever it stands — near Hatfield Broad Oak Village Hall, in a lay-by heading to Park Wood, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Our Lady of Lourdes? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
Hatfield Broad Oak motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Essex.