Stotfold: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Stotfold. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Stotfold and Church End carry, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars 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, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stotfold: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Hitchin Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Stag.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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. Whether it happens in Stotfold Common or the middle of Stotfold, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Arlesey or a forecourt around Stotfold.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Arlesey? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are across Bedfordshire — a simple routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- 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 two under one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stotfold already?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Esso, Stotfold Motor Centre or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if asked. Your own drive around Stotfold is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction is where to come off if you're on the A1(M), under 3 miles from Stotfold. Mileage counts — a short hop across Stotfold is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to St Albans — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Stotfold, and what takes place next
By Roecroft Lower School, near Stotfold Methodist Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the replies decide the work and our price. Nobody heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Then your tank is cleared and your system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Stotfold itself
Stotfold is a town situated in Bedfordshire, England, with a riverside setting and an elevation of 49 metres. Stotfold lies approximately 35 miles north of London and 19 miles east of St Albans, near the villages of Astwick and Radwell. Stotfold has a population of around 9485 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Stotfold is also close to Stotfold Common, a nearby area of open space.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Stotfold included
As a riverside town, Stotfold shares its vans surrounding areas — Astwick, Radwell — all the way through SG postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: give a SG5 4 postcode for our van.
The car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Stotfold Football Club, a side street near Memorial Hall: we drain the vehicle where it is. Assuming won't help at the back of The Salvation Army - Stotfold, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Stotfold people
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Bedfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.