Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Enfield Highway: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Enfield Highway. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Ponders End, as well as Enfield Highway, run on two fluids; your motor takes only the diesel. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Enfield Highway?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Moorfield Road before work, or in the car park at FBI Studio on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Enfield Wash or the middle of Enfield Highway: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Bulls Cross or a forecourt around Enfield Highway, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Brimsdown's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is in Greater London — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Carterhatch Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed 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 again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Enfield Highway: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Enfield Highway.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Enfield Highway lies under 3 miles from the M25; on it, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Enfield Highway is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles to London, so tell us.
What occurs when we arrive around Enfield Highway
Our van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Enfield Highway Library, or outside St James CofE Primary School. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, because the replies determine this work and the quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out unaided, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Enfield Highway and where it is
Enfield Highway is a suburban area in the London Borough of Enfield, located approximately 11 miles north of central London. Enfield Highway sits at a low elevation of around 20 metres, near the River Lea and close to neighbouring areas such as Enfield Wash and Brimsdown. Enfield Highway is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the typical residential architecture of the region. Enfield Highway is also situated near several local amenities and transport links, including those connecting it to London and other nearby suburbs like Southbury.
AdBlue drains around Enfield Highway, and Greater London beyond
Throughout EN postcodes, the vans covering Enfield Highway — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Brimsdown and Southbury among them. A postcode starting EN3 5 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Durants Park, a side street close to Enfield Highway Community Centre: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Guessing doesn't help behind St James, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Enfield Highway motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Greater London: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.