How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in High Town
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around High Town. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels in Park Town, like those in High Town, run on two fluids; the engine takes just the diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in High Town
It's hardly ever 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 drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Brunswick Street before work, or in the car park at Painters Arms on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. Luton or the heart of High Town: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Bury Park or a forecourt in High Town, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Luton's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Bedfordshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Welbeck Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
High Town: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Esso, GG On the move or any other — the staff will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own drive around High Town is where it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. High Town sits under 3 miles from the M1; there, take the next junction. A short hop across High Town is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there in High Town
Wherever the car has stopped, whether by St Matthew's Primary School, beside High Town Methodist Church or at home, the van travels to it. Those answers settle this work and the price, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. No one heads out until you've had our quote over the phone.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Before we leave, we start the car and make sure that it's running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take roughly half an hour after we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About High Town
High Town is a suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated near the lakeside and surrounded by other residential neighbourhoods like Round Green. High Town sits at an elevation of 126 metres, within commuting distance of London and close to the city of St Albans. High Town is predominantly composed of flat housing, with nearby places including Luton and Hart Hill. High Town has a population of approximately 12,106 residents.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, High Town included
High Town is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Hart Hill and Round Green among them, across the LU postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning LU2 0, and our van gets there fastest.
Your car stays where it is. Wherever it stands — near St Matthew's Church, in a layby heading to Bell's Close, at home — that's where it is cleared. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Celestial Church of Christ Luton St Emmanuel, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for High Town drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Bedfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.