Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hitchin Hill
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Hitchin Hill. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Oakfield, like those in Hitchin Hill, run on two liquids; your motor takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate 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. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Hitchin Hill?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off St. John's Road, or outside The Three Moorhens on the way home that evening.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. It's seconds, be it in Sunnyside or right in the centre of Hitchin Hill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Hitchin Hill forecourt or a driveway out in Gosmore, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Hitchin? Ask the person who drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Hertfordshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hitchin Hill, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hitchin Hill?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Hitchin Hill is where it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. On the A1(M), under 3 miles from Hitchin Hill, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Hitchin Hill is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles towards St Albans, and so say.
What takes place when we get there in Hitchin Hill
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside St John's Community Centre, or by Highbury Infant School and Nursery. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our technicians start the car and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Hitchin Hill
Hitchin Hill is a suburban area situated near the River Hiz, with a mix of housing types although predominantly detached homes. Hitchin Hill sits at an elevation of 89 metres, close to the town of Hitchin and near the villages of Sunnyside and Charlton. Hitchin Hill is located within commuting distance of London, approximately 30.6 miles away, and is also near the city of St Albans, which is 13.3 miles away. Hitchin Hill has a population of around 4477 residents.
Hitchin Hill and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Hitchin Hill is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Charlton and Hitchin among them, across the SG postcode area. A postcode starting SG4 9 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside British schools museum, in a lay-by heading to Hitchin Priory Gardens, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Grace Baptist Church? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
In short, for Hitchin Hill motorists
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever around Hertfordshire: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.