Puckeridge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Puckeridge, finding it before the engine turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Church End, like those in Puckeridge, run on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It's in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Puckeridge: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off High Street, perhaps outside The Crown and Falcon on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Puckeridge or out in Standon.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Colliers End or a forecourt in Puckeridge.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in each filler just there.
- Can't find it beside the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Check with 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 Ware.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are in Hertfordshire — a simple routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Park Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Puckeridge?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Amco, JET or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car away when asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Puckeridge.
When your motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn it off. Come off the M11 — under 10 miles out of Puckeridge — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Puckeridge is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards St Albans, so tell us.
Our arrival around Puckeridge, and what takes place next
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Saint Thomas of Canterbury, or by St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School. The answers decide this work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next we start the car and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Puckeridge itself
Puckeridge is a village in Hertfordshire, situated on the riverside in the Eastern region of England, with an elevation of around 72 metres. Puckeridge lies approximately 27 miles north of London and 18 miles east of St Albans, near the villages of Standon, Old Hall Green, and Braughing. Puckeridge has a population of around 1725 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Puckeridge is characterized by its rural setting and residential community.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, Puckeridge included
Throughout SG postcodes, the vans covering Puckeridge — a village — work the nearby locations too, Braughing and Old Hall Green among them. Quote a postcode beginning SG11 1, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a street near Puckeridge Evangelical Congregational Chapel, or a layby towards Tillcroft Spring. Assuming won't help behind Standon & Puckeridge Community Centre, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Puckeridge people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.