Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wigginton Bottom: Why It Happens
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Wigginton Bottom, catching it before the motor turns usually means a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Wigginton Bottom and Hastoe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Wigginton Bottom
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Wigginton Bottom before work, or in the car park outside The Greyhound heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Wigginton Bottom or out in Wigginton.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Cow Roast or a forecourt in Wigginton Bottom.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — at Tring's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are in Hertfordshire — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Common Field, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- 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 diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel filler remained closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wigginton Bottom?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. Your own driveway in Wigginton Bottom is where it stays.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then switch off. On the M1, under 10 miles from Wigginton Bottom, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards St Albans, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Wigginton Bottom.
When our engineers arrive around Wigginton Bottom, what takes place?
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Wigginton Village Hall, or by St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide the work and our quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. 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. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Wigginton Bottom and where it is
Wigginton Bottom is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 196 metres, approximately 28.9 miles from London. Wigginton Bottom lies near the city of St Albans, about 13 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Wigginton, New Ground, and Upper Dunsley. Wigginton Bottom is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature.
AdBlue drains around Wigginton Bottom, and Hertfordshire beyond
New Ground and Upper Dunsley are among the places near Wigginton Bottom, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout HP postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a HP23 6 postcode to the van.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside St Bartholomew's Church, in a lay-by heading to Lower Wood, at home — that is where it is emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Remembering the crew of RAF Canberra WH915? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
Wigginton Bottom drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Hertfordshire.