Crews Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Crews Hill, finding it before the motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading before the event? Then what follows covers why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Crews Hill and Northaw Valley carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Crews Hill
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Whitewebbs Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Plough.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. It's seconds, whether out in Chase Village or right in the centre of Crews Hill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Crews Hill forecourt or a drive over in Bulls Cross, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Greater London that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Theobalds Park Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Crews Hill?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away if asked. Your own driveway in Crews Hill is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M25 — under a mile out of Crews Hill — at the first exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Crews Hill makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards St Albans — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Crews Hill, what happens?
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Whitewebbs Museum of Transport, or by St John's CofE Primary School. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies decide the work and price. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes away unaided, however long it is left. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Crews Hill and where it is
Crews Hill is a village located in the northern part of Greater London, situated near the River Lea at an elevation of around 45 metres. Crews Hill sits close to several nearby places, including Chase Village, Botany Bay, and Forty Hill, and is approximately 12 miles from central London. Crews Hill is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and a population of around 917 residents. Crews Hill enjoys a relatively rural setting despite being within the Greater London area.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Crews Hill included
Crews Hill is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Botany Bay and Forty Hill among them, across the EN postcode area. Quickest of all: give a EN2 9 postcode for the van.
The car doesn't need to move. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Flash Lane Aqueduct, or a layby on the way to Crews Hill Golf Course. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St John the Baptist, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Crews Hill drivers
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.