AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Warden Hill: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Warden Hill. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of newer diesels driven about Warden Hill and Marsh Farm hold a second fluid too. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Warden Hill?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Birdsfoot Lane before work, or in the car park at Jolly Milliner on the way home.
New-to-you cars come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. It's seconds, be it out in Stopsley Common or bang in the heart of Warden Hill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Warden Hill forecourt or a drive over in Biscot, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Leagrave, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Bedfordshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Grasmere Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Warden Hill already?
Short list, then. First: your engine stays off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Texaco or another — the attendants will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Warden Hill, leave it where it stands.
Where your engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. Warden Hill sits under 3 miles from the M1; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Warden Hill is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Warden Hill, and what happens next
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near St John's Methodist Church, or outside Warden Hill Infant Academy. Which liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide both work and price. On the call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and 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. It's worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Warden Hill and where it is
Warden Hill is a suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated approximately 31 miles north of London and 12 miles south of St Albans. Warden Hill sits at an elevation of around 123 metres, with nearby green spaces including Stopsley Common and Bramingham Park. Warden Hill is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with Limbury to the east and other local amenities nearby. Warden Hill has a population of around 6766 residents, making it a moderately sized suburban community.
AdBlue drains in Warden Hill and across Bedfordshire
As a residential suburb, Warden Hill shares its vans nearby places — Bramingham Park, Limbury — all the way across LU postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting LU3 2 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. Wherever it sits — beside St Margrets Church Streatley Parish Centre, on a lay-by en route to Grasmere Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Augustine of Canterbury.
The short version for Warden Hill drivers
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Bedfordshire.