How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Piccotts End
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Piccotts End. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven round Piccotts End and Grovehill hold a second liquid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
There's a filler on every tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Piccotts End: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Piccotts End Lane, or on the way home in the car park at Marchmont Arms.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Piccotts End or out in Gadebridge.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Hemel Hempstead or a forecourt around Piccotts End.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many cars mark which goes in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Hemel Hempstead? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Piccotts End Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Piccotts End?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine remains unstarted. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Piccotts End.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M1 — under 3 miles out of Piccotts End — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Piccotts End.
Our arrival around Piccotts End, and what happens next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside George Street Primary School, near site of Gadebridge Park Roman Villa or on your own drive. The replies settle the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Piccotts End
Piccotts End is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Hertfordshire, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 2558 residents. Piccotts End lies approximately 98 metres above sea level and is located near several other local areas, including Gadebridge, Highfield, and Hammerfield. Piccotts End is close to the city of St Albans, which is about 5.9 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, being around 23.3 miles from the capital. Piccotts End has a relatively small and settled community,
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Piccotts End included
Throughout HP postcodes, our teams covering Piccotts End — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Hammerfield and Highfield included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HP2 6.
Your car stays where it is. Wherever it sits — near Hemel Hempstead baby memorial, in a layby en route to Gadebridge Park, at home — that is where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Plough.
In short, for Piccotts End motorists
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Hertfordshire.