AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Letchworth: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands in Letchworth, is normally what it needs if caught before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels around Letchworth and Cadwell carry, with diesel for your engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Letchworth?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Eastcheap before work, or in the car park outside The Arena Tavern on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Willian or the middle of Letchworth: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Letchworth forecourt or a drive over in Walsworth, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Letchworth Garden City's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Hertfordshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Broadway.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- 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 came off.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to step five.
Letchworth: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — Harvest Service Station, Esso or another — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Letchworth.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Letchworth lies under 3 miles from the A1(M); on it, use the next junction. A short hop across Letchworth is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Letchworth: what occurs when we arrive
Outside Pixmore Junior School, close to Raymond Unwin or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers settle this work and the quote, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. Hence it matters more. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Letchworth and where it is
Letchworth is a town in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 32.7 miles north of London, with Letchworth being close to the cities of St Albans and the surrounding villages of Willian, Norton, and Purwell. Letchworth sits at an elevation of around 92 metres, with Letchworth having a population of approximately 21,504 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Letchworth is a significant urban centre in the region, with Letchworth being an important part of the local economy.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Letchworth included
Norton and Purwell are among the places near Letchworth, a new town, that the same vans cover, throughout SG postcodes. A postcode starting SG6 3 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not needed. Anywhere it sits — near Town Hall, on a layby en route to Broadway Gardens, at home — that is where it gets drained. Guessing won't help behind Paradise Is, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Letchworth drivers: the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Hertfordshire.