Potters Bar: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
One fact matters above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is if your engine has been started afterwards. Not started yet? Then keep the vehicle like that, wherever the car sits — Potters Bar or Swanley Bar. Switch nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, and expect a thorough flush plus a drain, done right where your car stands around Potters Bar. Already run? Stop when safe, then switch it off. Step one stays unchanged, even if the work is bigger.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever in Hertfordshire it happened.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Potters Bar forecourt
Just at this point, nozzle yet in your hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. Somewhere in Potters Bar, then — Tesco, BP, or anywhere else nearby.
What it means: this is the ideal spot to find out. The AdBlue is in the tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
Do this: stay out of the car, however much the queue needs clearing. Ask the staff to help you push the vehicle into a parking spot, keep the receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. If it cannot be moved, it can be cleared at the petrol pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt.
AdBlue in the diesel tank at home in Potters Bar
On the dash, a warning had shown for days. Only by the recycling, the empty container in your hand, did you glance back at the cap you had opened on the drive. Homes just off Mutton Lane are caught out as often as everywhere else.
The upshot: zero driving since leaves it nearly as good to finding it at the petrol pump. On the floor of that tank sits exactly where AdBlue waits, since it won't mix with diesel — and a night passing makes no difference.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so no one moves the vehicle in the morning. Then ring. Little Heath or Potters Bar: wherever your drive sits, that is where it is cleared. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Potters Bar: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
A mile or two after topping up, the motor started playing up: roughness, smoke, less power, lights on the dash. Maybe heading to St Albans, under 10 miles away, or simply along Baker Street.
In short: the AdBlue has been sucked through your fuel system. It has been through the fuel filter and your lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the injectors. More driving, more starts: further it travels.
What to do: pull over where it is safe to do so then switch off. Services further along are too far: on the M25, under a mile out of Potters Bar, use the first junction. No trial starts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue does. Phone us and say how far you went.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
A week ago, it was new to you. On your own car, AdBlue is absent or somewhere else. On this one, the cap is right next to your diesel cap — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere around Hertfordshire.
Meaning? Whatever case above counts here — run or not — and one extra stage. The owner frequently has to sign off any work, under many hire and fleet agreements.
Settling it before the van turn up is quicker, so phone the rental company or your fleet manager, then us. Stuck by Potters Bar Museum or outside the nearest station till someone replies, the vehicle stays switched off the whole time.
Potters Bar: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
"I think so" is sometimes as honest answer there is. Lighter, that bottle; a hint of ammonia round your filler; no clear recollection of which cap. Sound familiar? It might have been on a friend's drive in Dancers Hill, or rushing outside Pope Paul Catholic Primary School at the school run.
What it means: a little spilled about your filler does no harm to your motor. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different matter. Turning on the car cannot tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in that tank it will pull it in.
Next: assume it got in, then keep your engine off. Tell us what you saw on your phone. A clear tank looked at is a better outcome than a run one drained.
Potters Bar: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Each case has the same start to the job. Anywhere the car is — The Old Manor's car park, a road by 60+ Centre, a drive, a filling station — our van gets there and asks about the liquid, the quantity, and whether the motor has turned over. Over the phone, before dispatch, you hear our price, and those replies decide the job too.
Draining your tank comes first, then a careful flush — more vital after urea than with petrol, since crystals and corrosion will not clear on their own, no matter how long it sits. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Where the motor hasn't been started, expect roughly half an hour once we arrive, for most jobs.
Our technicians fire it up at the end. With clean diesel in, it runs while our technicians confirm it's running properly, and then we leave. When it's caught early, the car very seldom has long-term damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. Payment is that day, never upfront. For the insurer, you get a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling, so look at yours while the van travels.
About Potters Bar and where it is
Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, situated on the River Lea, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential areas. Potters Bar sits at an elevation of around 100 metres, close to the outskirts of London and near the towns of St Albans and Hatfield. Potters Bar has a population of approximately 17,600 people and is surrounded by smaller communities such as Little Heath and Bentley Heath. Potters Bar is connected to nearby cities and towns via major roads and railways.
Potters Bar and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Potters Bar is a riverside town, and the same vans that cover it work the places near it too, Bentley Heath and Ganwick Corner among them, across the EN postcode area. A postcode starting EN6 2 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Community Peace Garden or in a car park in the middle of Potters Bar, it doesn't need to shift. Where it sits, that is where it is emptied. If you are somewhere hard to describe, near Wyllyotts Centre or close to a boundary, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The one-line version
Unstarted? Leave it that way then phone. Run already? Pull over, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest whichever case, in Potters Bar and Hertfordshire, on 0333 366 0103.