How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Henlow
Keep the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands in Henlow, is normally what it takes if found before the motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Henlow and Langford carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. 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. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Henlow?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Church Road before work, or in the car park outside Five Bells heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after 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 occurs in Clifton or the middle of Henlow, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Henlow forecourt or a drive out in Stanford, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Arlesey, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Bedfordshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Park Lane, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read it.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five is off limits.
Henlow: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Gulf, Pace or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car away when asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Henlow.
When the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. The next exit is the place to come off if you are on the A1(M), under 5 miles from Henlow. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Henlow is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards St Albans, and so tell us.
What takes place when our technicians arrive in Henlow
Outside Raynsford Church of England Academy, near Church of St. Mary's, Henlow or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, we start it and check that it's running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Henlow, briefly
Henlow is a village in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Hiz, at an elevation of around 43 metres. Henlow has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is located near to other small settlements such as Clifton and Church End. Henlow is within commuting distance of London, approximately 37 miles away, and is also close to the city of St Albans, which is about 20 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Henlow and across Bedfordshire
Throughout SG postcodes, our teams covering Henlow — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Church End and Cliton Manor among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SG16 6.
The vehicle does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Millennium Meadow, a side street close to Henlow Parish Hall: our technicians drain the car where it sits. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Henlow Methodist Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Henlow motorists
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Bedfordshire.