How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hemel Hempstead
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Hemel Hempstead, finding it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around Corner Hall, as well as Hemel Hempstead, carry on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hemel Hempstead: how it takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Hillfield Road, perhaps outside The hop tap on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Paradise or the middle of Hemel Hempstead, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Hemel Hempstead forecourt or a driveway out in Boxmoor, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever across Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Marlowes.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hemel Hempstead?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Tesco or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, if you ask. Your own drive in Hemel Hempstead is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M1 — under 3 miles out of Hemel Hempstead — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hemel Hempstead.
What takes place when we arrive in Hemel Hempstead
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by South Hill Primary School, near King Henry VIII or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, however long it sits. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then your car is tested. The motor is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a riverside town situated in Hertfordshire, England, with a scenic location near several major settlements. Hemel Hempstead lies to the north-west of the capital city, making it a significant urban centre in the region. The town's setting alongside a river adds to its charm, providing a pleasant environment for residents and visitors alike.
Hemel Hempstead and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Hemel Hempstead is a new town, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Hammerfield and Adeyfield among them, across the HP postcode area. Fastest of all: give a HP1 1 postcode for the van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Friends Garden, a side street near The Forum: our technicians drain it where it stands. Assuming won't help behind Hemel Hempstead Main Library, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
For Hemel Hempstead motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever across Hertfordshire: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.