AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lent: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits in Lent. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Rose Hill, as well as Lent, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Every tank has one 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 constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Lent
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Lent Rise Road before work, or in the car park outside The Old Five Bells on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. Whether it happens in Lent Rise or the middle of Lent, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Taplow or a forecourt around Lent, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — at Taplow's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is around Buckinghamshire — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church Walk, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lent?
Short list, then. Top of that: the engine remains off. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Lent is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you are on the Huntercombe Spur, under 3 miles from Lent. A short hop across Lent is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Lent
Our van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Hitcham House, or by St Peter's Church of England Primary School. The answers settle the work and our price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off until you have heard our quote over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Lent, briefly
Lent is a locality in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 55 metres, approximately 23 miles west of London. Lent lies near several other small settlements, including Lent Rise, Hitchambury, and Burnham, and is close to the city of St Albans. Lent has a population of around 1617 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Buckinghamshire, Lent included
Lent is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Hitchambury and Burnham among them, across the SL postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SL1 7.
The vehicle stays put. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road by The 1878 Stadium, or a lay-by on the way to Burnham Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St. Mary's Church.
For Lent people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever across Buckinghamshire: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.