AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hatch End: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Stop reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Hatch End. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Hatch End and Headstone run, with diesel for your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the 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 far less frequently. It is in the gap that the error lives.
Hatch End: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Sherington Avenue, or heading home in the car park at The Moon and Sixpence.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches 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 pour once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Hatch End or out in Carpenders Park.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Hatch End forecourt or a driveway out in Pinner, take a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Milne Field, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hatch End?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. At home in Hatch End? Then your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Hatch End lies under 3 miles from the M1; on it, take the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Hatch End is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles towards St Albans, and so tell us.
When our engineers get there around Hatch End, what happens?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Grimsdyke School, close to Harrow Arts Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then the tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Hatch End and where it is
Hatch End is a suburban area in northwest London, situated near the River Pinn and the Grand Union Canal. Hatch End has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly composed of flats, and is located near several parks and green spaces, including Carpenders Park and Pinnerwood Park. Hatch End is close to the neighbouring areas of Harrow Weald and is approximately 12 miles from central London. Hatch End sits at an elevation of around 71 metres above sea level, in a gently sloping valley
AdBlue drains about Hatch End, and Greater London beyond
Throughout HA postcodes, the teams covering Hatch End — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Harrow Weald and Pinnerwood Park included. Quote a postcode that starts HA5 4, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Hatch End Riverside Park, a side street near Hatch End Lawn Tennis Club: we drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Hatch End Swimming Pool, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
For Hatch End people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever across Greater London: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.