Todds Green: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the engine has not run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car sits around Todds Green. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Todds Green and Little Wymondley carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
There's a filler on each tank. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Todds Green
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Stevenage Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Fisherman.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Fishers Green or right in the centre of Todds Green.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Symonds Green or a forecourt around Todds Green.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Stevenage's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever in Hertfordshire, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Perranporth Lane at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Todds Green?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Costco, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Todds Green.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. On the A1(M), under a mile from Todds Green, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Todds Green.
What occurs when we turn up in Todds Green
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near St Mary the Virgin, or outside Graveley Primary School. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide the work and price. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Todds Green itself
Todds Green is a small hamlet in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 99 metres, approximately 29 miles north of London. Todds Green lies near several other small settlements, including Fishers Green, Lower Titmore Green, and Titmore Green, and is close to the city of St Albans. Todds Green is characterized by its semi-detached housing and quiet rural setting. Todds Green has a population of around 684 residents.
AdBlue drains about Todds Green, and Hertfordshire beyond
Over SG postcodes, our teams that cover Todds Green — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding spots too, Titmore Green and Lower Titmore Green included. Quickest of all: give a SG1 2 postcode to our van.
Shifting the car is not needed. Wherever it sits — beside The Healing Tree, on a lay-by heading to Lucas's Wood, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Christ the King? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
Todds Green people: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Hertfordshire.