AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knotty Green: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Knotty Green, is normally what it needs if caught before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Knotty Green and Holtspur carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Knotty Green: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Woodchester Park, or outside The Lion of Beaconsfield on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. Whether it takes place in Forty Green or the middle of Knotty Green, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Knotty Green or a driveway over in Winchmore Hill. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Beaconsfield.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Buckinghamshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Pavilion End.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located your filler and read it.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, 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 go on to stage five.
Knotty Green: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: your motor remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Shell or any other — the staff will normally help roll the car away, when you ask. Your own drive in Knotty Green is where it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Knotty Green sits under 3 miles from the M40; on it, use the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Knotty Green.
Knotty Green: what takes place when our engineers turn up
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by St Mary and All Saints CofE Primary School, near Sir Terry Pratchett, OBE or at home, our van comes to it. Those replies determine the work and our quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. Nobody sets off until you've heard the price over the phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing washes away unaided, however long it is left. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally your car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Knotty Green itself
Knotty Green is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated approximately 24 miles west of London and 16 miles southwest of St Albans. Knotty Green sits in a relatively low-lying area at around 125 metres above sea level, near the villages of Forty Green and Penn Bottom. Knotty Green is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the affluence of the area. Knotty Green remains a quiet and residential community on the edge of the Chiltern Hills.
AdBlue drains around Knotty Green, and Buckinghamshire beyond
Knotty Green is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Beaconsfield and Penn Bottom among them, across the HP postcode area. Give a postcode beginning HP9 1, and our van arrives quickest.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Wherever it stands — beside Beaconsfield Library, in a lay-by heading to Knotty Green Park, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help behind Bekonscot Model Village, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
For Knotty Green people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Buckinghamshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.