Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dollis Hill: Why It Happens
Keep the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the engine hasn't run, it is drained and fully rinsed where your vehicle is in Dollis Hill. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Dollis Hill and Cricklewood run, with diesel for the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dollis Hill: how it happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Coles Green Road before work, or in the car park outside Whelan's on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, be it in Staples Corner or bang in the heart of Dollis Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Dollis Hill or a drive over in Neasden. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Brent Cross West? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in 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 Dollis Hill Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Dollis Hill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Shell, Esso or another — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. On your own drive in Dollis Hill? So the vehicle remains put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M1, under a mile from Dollis Hill, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Dollis Hill is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Westminster — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Dollis Hill
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Maharashtra Mandal London, or outside Our Lady of Grace Catholic Junior School. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. The quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Dollis Hill, for a moment
Dollis Hill is a suburban area in northwest London, situated approximately 5.8 miles from the city centre. Dollis Hill sits at an elevation of 71 metres, with nearby landmarks including Staples Corner and the Welsh Harp reservoir. Dollis Hill is characterized by its predominantly flat-based housing stock, which reflects the area's urban development. Dollis Hill is also close to other local areas, such as Dudden Hill and Westminster, which is about 6.2 miles away.
Dollis Hill and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Dollis Hill has the same vans as surrounding places — Welsh Harp, Dudden Hill — all the way across NW postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting NW2 6 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Pinemartin Acitivty Park, a side street close to Comber Close Community Centre: our technicians drain the car where it stands. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Tommy Flowers, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Dollis Hill motorists
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Greater London.