Hatfield: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Hatfield. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many current diesels seen round Hatfield and The Ryde hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Hatfield?
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Stonecross Road, perhaps outside The Red Lion on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange car.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Hatfield or out in Old Hatfield.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Hatfield forecourt or a drive out in Oxlease, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of School Lane.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hatfield?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Asda or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Hatfield.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the Hatfield Tunnel — under a mile out of Hatfield — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hatfield.
Our arrival around Hatfield, and what occurs next
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Christ Church, or by Countess Anne Church of England School. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers decide the work and price. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Hatfield itself
Hatfield is a town in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 18 miles north of London and 5 miles east of St Albans. Hatfield sits in a relatively low-lying area at around 83 metres above sea level, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential types. Hatfield has a number of nearby neighbourhoods, including Old Hatfield, Birchwood, and Roe Green, and is home to a population of around 21729 people. Hatfield is connected to the surrounding area by a network of roads and public transport links.
AdBlue drains round Hatfield, and Hertfordshire beyond
Over AL postcodes, our teams covering Hatfield — a new town — work the surrounding locations too, Roe Green and Birchwood included. A postcode starting AL10 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. Wherever it stands — beside The Old Courthouse, in a layby en route to St Albans Road East Recreational Ground, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Jean Margaret Hall.
The short version for Hatfield people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Hertfordshire.