Houghton Regis: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits around Houghton Regis. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Houghton Regis and Houghton Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Houghton Regis
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Angels Lane, or heading home in the car park at The King's Arms.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Tithe Farm or bang in the centre of Houghton Regis.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Chalk Hill or a forecourt around Houghton Regis.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Leagrave? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere in Bedfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bedford Square, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Houghton Regis?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Esso, Gulf or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car clear if asked. Your own driveway in Houghton Regis is the place it should stay.
When the motor has run already, pull over safely and turn the car off. Houghton Regis lies under 3 miles from the M1; there, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Houghton Regis is smaller a job than a trip of under 15 miles to St Albans, so tell us.
Our arrival around Houghton Regis, and what takes place next
The van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Houghton Regis Community Centre, or by Thomas Whitehead Church of England Academy. What fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide both work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. Before we leave, we fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our engineers are there. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Houghton Regis itself
Houghton Regis is a town in Bedfordshire, situated near the River Ouzel and surrounded by the nearby places of Tithe Farm, Parkside, and Bidwell. Houghton Regis has a population of approximately 19410 people and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. Houghton Regis sits at an elevation of 135 metres, about 32 miles northwest of London and 13 miles from the city of St Albans.
Houghton Regis and Bedfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Parkside and Bidwell are among the places around Houghton Regis, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, throughout LU postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts LU5 5, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift your car. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Houghton Regis Library, or a lay-by towards The Green. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of All Saints Parish Church.
For Houghton Regis people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere across Bedfordshire: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.