AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bow Common: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Bow Common. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Bow Common and Limehouse carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bow Common: how it happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Selsey Street before work, or in the car park outside The Angel of Bow on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a new car.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, nothing stops it. Coalmakers Wharf or the heart of Bow Common: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Bow Common or a driveway out in Bromley. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Limehouse, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater London that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Shelmerdine Close at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Bow Common: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Tesco, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Your own drive around Bow Common is where it stays.
Where the motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. Bow Common sits under 10 miles from the M11; there, take the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Bow Common is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles towards London — so say about how far it went.
Bow Common: what occurs when our engineers turn up
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Stebon Primary School, near Holy Name and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Vietnamese Church or on your own driveway. The replies settle this work and our quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Nobody heads out before you have had the price by phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, however long it is left. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bow Common and where it is
Bow Common is a suburban area in the East End of London, situated near the River Lea and close to the city centre. Bow Common sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, with nearby areas including Coalmakers Wharf and Mile End. Bow Common is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, reflecting the typical urban housing pattern of the region. Bow Common is located approximately 4.5 miles from central London, with the Frank Whipple Estate nearby.
AdBlue drains around Bow Common, and Greater London beyond
Mile End and Frank Whipple Estate are among the towns near Bow Common, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over E postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning E3 4, and the van gets there fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Diamond Gardens, a side street close to St Paul's Way Centre: we drain the vehicle where it is. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Burdett Estate Mosque, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Bow Common people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Greater London: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.