Poplars: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine has not turned, it is drained and fully flushed where the car sits in Poplars. 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.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels on the roads around Poplars and Chells carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Poplars?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Gresley Way, or on the way home in the car park outside The Coopers Inn.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Nothing 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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Poplars or out in Aston End.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Poplars or a drive out in Broadwater. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Stevenage, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed by Skylark Corner on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Poplars?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive in Poplars, leave the car where it is.
Where your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Poplars sits under 3 miles from the A1(M); on it, take the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Poplars is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles towards St Albans, and so say.
What happens when our technicians arrive around Poplars
Our van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Stevenage Mobile Library, or by Aston St Mary's Church of England Aided Primary School. What liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the replies decide the work and quote. The price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. After that our technicians start it and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Poplars
Poplars is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 26.8 miles north of London and 12.5 miles southeast of St Albans. Poplars sits at an elevation of around 85 metres, in a generally low-lying area of the county. Poplars has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Poplars is close to nearby places such as Aston End, Aston, and Shephall.
Poplars and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Aston and Shephall are among the places around Poplars, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout SG postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SG2 9.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near St. Mary, or a lay-by towards Donkey Park. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Aston Village Hall.
Poplars drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, anywhere in Hertfordshire: switch the car off then call 0333 366 0103.