Stipers Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid 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 and a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands in Stipers Hill, is normally all it needs if found before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels driven around Stipers Hill and Dunstable carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles 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 pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stipers Hill: how it takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Churchill Road before work, or in the car park at The Highwayman on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a new car.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. Downside or the heart of Stipers Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Kensworth or a forecourt around Stipers Hill.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Leagrave, ask before you leave, not 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 Bedfordshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lowther Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stipers Hill?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Sainsbury's, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Stipers Hill.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is the place to leave if you're on the M1, under 3 miles from Stipers Hill. About how far did it go? Hopping across Stipers Hill is less work than a run of under 15 miles to St Albans, so tell us.
What occurs when we turn up in Stipers Hill
Outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, near The Mayfield Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. Nobody heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need about half an hour once we are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Stipers Hill itself
Stipers Hill is a suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 178 metres, approximately 30 miles north of London. Stipers Hill is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock, which dominates the local landscape. Stipers Hill is close to several nearby places, including Downside, Churchend, and California, and is about 11 miles from the city of St Albans.
AdBlue drains around Stipers Hill and across Bedfordshire
Stipers Hill is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Churchend and California among them, across the LU postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning LU6 3, and our van gets there quickest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near St Augustine's, or a layby on the way to Mentmore park. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Langdale Church.
The short version for Stipers Hill people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Bedfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.