Hoddesdon: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and fully cleaned where your car sits in Hoddesdon. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Hoddesdon and Dobbs Weir carry, with diesel for the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hoddesdon: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Charlton Way, or heading home in the car park at The Golden Lion.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it takes place in Spitalbrook or the middle of Hoddesdon, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Glen Faba or a forecourt in Hoddesdon, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Broxbourne, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Hertfordshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of High Street.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Hoddesdon: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. On your own drive in Hoddesdon? Then your car stays put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M25 — under 10 miles out of Hoddesdon — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Hoddesdon is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles to St Albans, and so say.
Hoddesdon: what happens when we turn up
By St Augustine's Catholic Primary School, near St Augustine's or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once we are there. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon is a town in Hertfordshire, situated on the River Lea, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential areas. Hoddesdon sits at an elevation of around 45 metres, close to the nearby places of Spitalbrook, High Leigh, and Rye Park. Hoddesdon is located approximately 18 miles from London and 14 miles from St Albans, making it a commuter town with a population of around 17,525 people. Hoddesdon has a riverside setting, which has influenced its development over time.
AdBlue drains in Hoddesdon and across Hertfordshire
High Leigh and Rye Park are among the places around Hoddesdon, a riverside town, that the same teams cover, over EN postcodes. A postcode starting EN11 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses, a lay-by on the way to Lowfield Sports Ground, a drive. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Hoddesdon Library, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Hoddesdon motorists
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Hertfordshire.