Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Jersey Farm
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the car stands in Jersey Farm, is normally what it needs when found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels around Jersey Farm and Coopers Green carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The error lives in that gap.
Jersey Farm: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Beverley Gardens, or at Blackberry Jack on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar 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 tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Jersey Farm or out in Marshalswick.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Smallford or a forecourt in Jersey Farm.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at St Albans, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Hertfordshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Sandringham Crescent.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Jersey Farm?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Jersey Farm, leave the car where it sits.
When your engine has been run by now, pull over safely and turn it off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the A1(M), under 3 miles from Jersey Farm. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Jersey Farm.
What occurs when our technicians turn up around Jersey Farm
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Skyswood Primary & Nursery School, close to Burma Star Association Memorial or on your own driveway. Those replies determine this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is cleared and your system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before we head off.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Jersey Farm itself
Jersey Farm is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 2.3 miles from St Albans and 19.4 miles from London. Jersey Farm lies inland at an elevation of around 83 metres, bordering nearby places such as Marshalswick and Sandridge. Jersey Farm is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the area. Jersey Farm remains a commuter-focused community with easy access to St Albans and London.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Jersey Farm included
Throughout AL postcodes, the teams covering Jersey Farm — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Fleetville and Sandridge included. Give a postcode that starts AL4 9, and the van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Skys Wood, a side street near The Sanpit Theatre: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Marshalswick Baptist Free Church? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
In short, for Jersey Farm motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.