Oxlease: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits in Oxlease, is usually what it takes if found before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Oxlease and Old Hatfield run, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Oxlease: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Travellers Lane, or heading home in the car park at The Cavendish Arms.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing halts it. It's seconds, whether out in South Hatfield or right in the centre of Oxlease.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Oxlease or a driveway over in Nast Hyde. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- 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 at Hatfield.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is in Hertfordshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Woods Avenue, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Oxlease already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Gulf, Asda or another — the staff will usually help push your car away, when you ask. Your own driveway in Oxlease is where it stays.
Where the engine has been run by now, pull over safely and switch it off. On the A1(M), under a mile from Oxlease, that means the next junction. A short hop across Oxlease is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 5 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians get there in Oxlease
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by Oak View Primary and Nursery School, beside Oxlease Methodist Church or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The replies decide the work and the price, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out until you have had our quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. The motor is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Oxlease
Oxlease is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 4.8 miles from St Albans and 17.6 miles from London. Oxlease sits at an elevation of around 86 metres, in a gently sloping landscape near the towns of South Hatfield and Hatfield. Oxlease is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the area's development as a residential community. Oxlease is bordered by nearby places such as Roe Green, which share similar geographical and demographic profiles.
AdBlue drains around Oxlease, and Hertfordshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Oxlease shares its vans surrounding places — Roe Green, Hatfield — all the way through AL postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a AL10 8 postcode to the van.
Moving your car is not needed. Anywhere it stands — beside Roe Hill Hall, on a lay-by heading to Steam Woods, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Hatfield Leisure Centre.
In short, for Oxlease drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Hertfordshire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.