Hatton Park: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Hatton Park. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Wilby, like those in Hatton Park, carry on two fluids; the motor gets only the diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Hatton Park: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Torrington Road before work, or in the car park at The Queens Head on the way home.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it in Wellingborough or right in the centre of Hatton Park.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Hatton Park forecourt or a drive out in Little Irchester, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Wellingborough.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in Northamptonshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Torrington Green, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
Hatton Park: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays off. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the Morrisons or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway in Hatton Park, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Where your engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the car off. Hatton Park sits under 15 miles from the M1; there, use the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hatton Park.
When our engineers turn up around Hatton Park, what takes place?
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside Freemans Endowed Church of England Junior Academy, near Penrith Drive Childrens Centre or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide both work and price. Nobody sets off before you have had the quote by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. Once the filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Hatton Park and where it is
Hatton Park is a suburban area in Northamptonshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 92 metres. Hatton Park lies approximately 18 miles from Milton Keynes and 61 miles northwest of London, near the towns of Wellingborough and Great Harrowden. Hatton Park has a population of around 5981 residents, predominantly living in detached housing.
Hatton Park and Northamptonshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Burrows Bush and Great Harrowden are among the places around Hatton Park, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over NN postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning NN8 5, and the van gets there fastest.
No need to move the car. Anywhere it sits — beside Wellingborough Cricket Club, on a lay-by heading to Bassett's Close Park, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Guessing doesn't help behind Wellingborough Bowling Club, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Hatton Park people
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Northamptonshire.