AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stevenage: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car stands around Stevenage, is usually what it takes when found before your motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many newer diesels seen about Stevenage and Symonds Green hold a second fluid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Stevenage?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Park Place, or outside The Old Post Office on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. Bedwell or the middle of Stevenage: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Stevenage or a driveway over in Shephall. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Hertfordshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Market Square at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Stevenage already?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Tesco, Asda or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if asked. Your own drive around Stevenage is where it should stay.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the A1(M), under a mile from Stevenage, that means the next junction. A short hop across Stevenage is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive in Stevenage, what takes place?
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Stevenage Indoor Market, or by Broom Barns Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Stevenage itself
Stevenage is a town in Hertfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Lea, with a mix of old and new buildings, including the historic Old Town area. Stevenage sits at an elevation of around 94 metres, approximately 27.5 miles north of London, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Bedwell and Pin Green. Stevenage has a population of around 20631 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Stevenage is also close to the city of St Albans, which is about 11.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Stevenage and across Hertfordshire
Being a new town, Stevenage has the same vans as surrounding areas — Old Town, Pin Green — right through SG postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting SG1 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains where it is. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Joyride, or a lay-by on the way to Town Centre Gardens. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Westgate Shopping Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Stevenage motorists
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.