Crouch End: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Crouch End, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many newer diesels seen round Crouch End and Stroud Green hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Crouch End?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Birchington Road before work, or in the car park outside Maynard Arms on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. It's seconds, whether in Hornsey Vale or bang in the heart of Crouch End.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Upper Holloway or a forecourt in Crouch End.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in each inlet right there.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Crouch Hill, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across Greater London — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Clifton Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Crouch End: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive in Crouch End, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M1, under 5 miles from Crouch End, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Crouch End is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards London — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Crouch End: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Hornsey Cricket Club, or by Coleridge Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you've heard our quote over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. The motor is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Crouch End and where it is
Crouch End is a suburban area in north London, situated near the River Moselle and close to the centres of Hornsey and Muswell Hill. Crouch End sits at an elevation of around 58 metres, with a mix of housing types although flats are predominant. Crouch End is located near several other residential areas, including Hornsey Vale and Cranley Gardens. Crouch End has a population of approximately 11,113 people.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Crouch End included
Being a residential suburb, Crouch End has the same vans as surrounding places — Hornsey, Cranley Gardens — all the way across N postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting N8 8.
The car doesn't need to move. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near Park Road Pools & Fitness, or a lay-by on the way to Meadow Orchard Project. Assuming doesn't help behind Jealous Gallery and Print Studio, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Crouch End drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere across Greater London: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.