AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sarratt: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits around Sarratt. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Sarratt Bottom, as well as Sarratt, carry on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sarratt: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off The Green, or at The Boot on the way home after work.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Sarratt or out in Commonwood.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Bucks Hill or a forecourt around Sarratt.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Chorleywood? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Hertfordshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Alexandra Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Sarratt?
Brief order, then. First: your motor remains unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Biggerstaff's Garage, the Shell or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive around Sarratt, leave it where it sits.
Where your motor has been run already, pull over safely and turn it off. The next exit is the place to come off if you're on the M25, under 3 miles from Sarratt. Distance matters — a short hop across Sarratt is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards St Albans — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Sarratt
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Sarratt Church of England Primary School, near War Memorial or on your own driveway. What fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and quote. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Next our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Sarratt and where it is
Sarratt is a village in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 126 metres, with Sarratt being close to the larger city of St Albans and approximately 19.9 miles from London. Sarratt has a population of around 1255 people, with Sarratt being characterised by predominantly detached housing. Sarratt is near other small communities such as Commonwood and Church End.
AdBlue drains about Sarratt, and Hertfordshire beyond
Being a rural village, Sarratt has the same vans as nearby places — Church End, Micklefield Green — all the way through WD postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode beginning WD3 6, and the van gets there quickest.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road near Sarratt Village Hall, or a lay-by towards Sarratt Village Green. Awkward to explain, like the back of Holy Cross? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Sarratt people
First, the cap; then, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere across Hertfordshire: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.