How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Childs Hill
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Childs Hill, catching it before the motor runs normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Childs Hill and Vale of Health carry, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Childs Hill: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Hermitage Lane, or heading home in the car park outside The Refectory.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Childs Hill or out in Cricklewood.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Hampstead or a forecourt around Childs Hill.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Cricklewood.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Cricklewood Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Childs Hill already?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Harvest energy, Esso or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, if you ask. At home in Childs Hill? Then the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M1 — under 3 miles out of Childs Hill — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Childs Hill.
Childs Hill: what occurs when our engineers arrive
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Childs Hill Baptist Church, or by All Saints' CofE Primary School NW2. Those answers decide this work and the quote, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night 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 looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Childs Hill, briefly
Childs Hill is a suburban area in northwest London, situated approximately 4.9 miles from the city centre. Childs Hill sits at an elevation of 82 metres, with nearby neighbourhoods including Cricklewood, North End, and West Hampstead. Childs Hill is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, which house its population of around 9805 residents. Childs Hill is close to Westminster, being about 5.3 miles away from the city.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Childs Hill included
North End and West Hampstead are among the places around Childs Hill, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout NW postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NW11 8.
Shifting your car is not needed. Wherever it sits — near All Saints, on a layby heading to Elm Park, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Assuming won't help at the back of Childs Hill Library, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Childs Hill people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Greater London.