AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Finchley: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully cleaned where your car is around East Finchley. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of current diesels seen round East Finchley and Coldfall carry another liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in East Finchley?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Bancroft Avenue before work, or in the car park outside The Old White Lion on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part stops 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. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of East Finchley or out in Fortis Green.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Cranley Gardens or a forecourt around East Finchley.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Hampstead Heath? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the 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 motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Bishops Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in East Finchley already?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Gulf, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. At home in East Finchley? Then your car stays where it is.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over safely and turn the car off. Come off the M1 — under 3 miles out of East Finchley — at the first junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across East Finchley is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards London — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up around East Finchley
By Holy Trinity CofE Primary School, close to Phoenix Cinema or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers decide this work and our quote, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Then our engineers start the engine and check it runs correctly before we go.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. 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 plenty of policies.
About East Finchley
East Finchley is a suburban area in north London, situated near the North Circular Road and the River Brent, with a mix of residential and commercial properties. East Finchley has a population of around 7891 people, predominantly living in flats, and is close to nearby places such as Fortis Green, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Highgate. East Finchley sits at an elevation of approximately 75 metres above sea level, about 5.6 miles from central London. East Finchley is well connected to the rest of London, with good transport links to the city centre.
East Finchley and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Hampstead Garden Suburb and Highgate are among the towns near East Finchley, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over N postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts N2 0, and our van gets there quickest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by Fortis Green Tennis Club, or a lay-by towards Cherry Tree Wood. Guessing won't help behind Stormont Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For East Finchley people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.