Kensworth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Kensworth. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but many modern diesels seen round Kensworth and Holywell hold a second fluid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler on every tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Kensworth: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Dovehouse Lane before work, or in the car park at The Farmer's Boy on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
New-to-you vehicles are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour begins, nothing stops it. Whether it takes place in Churchend or the middle of Kensworth, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Kensworth or a drive over in Whipsnade. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Leagrave? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Bedfordshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by Common Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Kensworth?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Kensworth? Then the car remains put.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M1 — under 3 miles out of Kensworth — at the first exit. A short hop across Kensworth is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive around Kensworth, what happens?
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it by Kensworth Church of England Academy, near Kensworth Methodist Chapel or at home, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide the work and our price. No one sets off before you've had our quote over the phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Kensworth
Kensworth is a small village in Bedfordshire, situated in the rolling countryside of the Eastern region, with an elevation of around 191 metres. Kensworth lies approximately 28.8 miles northwest of London and 9.9 miles southwest of St Albans, near the settlements of Churchend and Kensworth Lynch. Kensworth has a population of around 890 people, predominantly living in detached houses, and is surrounded by woodland areas such as Oldhill Wood.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Kensworth included
Kensworth Lynch and Oldhill Wood are among the places near Kensworth, a rural village, that the same teams cover, throughout LU postcodes. Fastest of all: give a LU6 2 postcode to our van.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it sits — near St Mary the Virgin, in a layby heading to Kensworth Recreation Ground, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Saint Mary Magdalene? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Kensworth people
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Bedfordshire.