AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Swanley Bar: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your car sits around Swanley Bar, is usually all it needs if caught before your engine runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of modern diesels around Northaw, as well as Swanley Bar, run on two fluids; the engine gets only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Swanley Bar: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Swanley Crescent before work, or in the car park outside The Builders Arms heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Little Heath or the middle of Swanley Bar, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Bell Bar or a forecourt in Swanley Bar, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Potters Bar's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Hertfordshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hawkshead Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Swanley Bar already?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the Tesco or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Swanley Bar.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the A1(M), under 3 miles from Swanley Bar, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Swanley Bar is less work than a run of under 10 miles towards St Albans, and so tell us.
Our arrival around Swanley Bar, and what occurs next
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside Little Heath Primary School, beside Potters Bar Car Boot Sale or on your own drive, the van travels to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the replies decide the work and price. No one heads out before you've had the quote by phone.
Then your tank is emptied 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, and so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, we fire it up and check that it's running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Swanley Bar itself
Swanley Bar is a small suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 117 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type. Swanley Bar is located near several other communities, including Little Heath, Brookmans Park, and Potters Bar, and is within commuting distance of London, approximately 14.3 miles away. Swanley Bar sits close to the city of St Albans, which is about 7.2 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Swanley Bar, and Hertfordshire beyond
Brookmans Park and Potters Bar are among the places around Swanley Bar, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout EN postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting EN6 1.
There's no need to move your car. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street near Potters Bar Car Boot Sale (Second Site), or a lay-by towards Gobions Wood. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Christ Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Swanley Bar people: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Hertfordshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.