AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Stephens: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits in St Stephens, is usually what it needs if caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around Chiswell Green, as well as St Stephens, carry on two fluids; your engine takes only your diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around St Stephens: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Abbey Avenue, or heading home in the car park outside King Harry.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in St Julians or the middle of St Stephens, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Townsend or a forecourt around St Stephens, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook shows where it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from St Albans Abbey's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Cardinal Grove.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Stephens already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Sainsbury's, BP or any forecourt will normally help to push the car clear if you ask. At home around St Stephens? Then the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. On the M1, under 3 miles from St Stephens, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under a mile away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St Stephens.
What occurs when our engineers arrive around St Stephens
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Prae Wood Primary School, close to The Roman Wall at St Alban's or on your own driveway. The answers decide the work and our price, so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, we start the engine and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About St Stephens
St Stephens is a suburban area located on the outskirts of St Albans in Hertfordshire, situated near the lakeside at an elevation of 109 metres. St Stephens is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to nearby places such as St Julians and Sopwell. St Stephens is also within commuting distance to London, being approximately 19 miles away. St Stephens has a population of around 4501 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hertfordshire, St Stephens included
St Stephens is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, St Albans and Sopwell among them, across the AL postcode area. A postcode starting AL3 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a street by St. Stephen's Church, or a layby on the way to St Stephen's Park. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Site of St Mary Magdalene's Chapel, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for St Stephens people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.