How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brondesbury Park
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands around Brondesbury Park, is normally all it takes when caught before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in College Park, like those in Brondesbury Park, run on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
There is a filler on each tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Brondesbury Park?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Chamberlayne Road, or at The Island on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Brondesbury Park or out in Willesden Green.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Brondesbury Park or a driveway out in Willesden. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Kensal Rise's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is around Greater London — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Egerton Gardens.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift 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 the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Brondesbury Park?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Shell, Texaco or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Brondesbury Park is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Brondesbury Park lies under 3 miles from the M1; on it, use the first exit. A short hop across Brondesbury Park is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive in Brondesbury Park, what happens?
Wherever your car came to rest, whether by Princess Frederica CofE Primary School, near Lexi Cinema or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. Nobody heads out before you've heard the quote by phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. The engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers leave.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Brondesbury Park itself
Brondesbury Park is a suburban area in northwest London, situated approximately 4.6 miles from the city centre. Brondesbury Park has a mix of terraced housing and other residential buildings, and is located near Willesden Green, Kensal Rise, and Kensal Green. Brondesbury Park sits at an elevation of around 58 metres, and is home to a population of around 10,784 people. Brondesbury Park is also close to Westminster, which is about 4.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Brondesbury Park and across Greater London
Kensal Rise and Kensal Green are among the places near Brondesbury Park, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout NW postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a NW10 3 postcode to our van.
Your car doesn't need to move. Draining happens right there, whether a driveway, a street near Kensal Rise Methodist Church, or a layby towards Chelmsford Square Tennis Courts & Gardens. Assuming doesn't help behind Church of the Transfiguration, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Brondesbury Park people
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.