Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hayes End: Why It Occurs
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Hayes End, finding it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen around Hayes End and Hayes carry a second liquid as well. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
Hayes End: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells 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 driveway off West Drayton Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Turk's Head.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a new vehicle.
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. Whether it happens in Hillingdon Heath or the middle of Hayes End, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, on a forecourt in Hayes End or a driveway over in Hayes Town. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Hayes & Harlington, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hewens Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hayes End already?
Do not start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the BP or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive in Hayes End, leave it where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the M4, under 3 miles from Hayes End. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hayes End.
When we turn up in Hayes End, what occurs?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Hewens Primary School, near Hayes End Library or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The answers decide the work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
Then the tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
If the motor hasn't run, most 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. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Hayes End, for a moment
Hayes End is a suburban area in northwest Greater London, situated approximately 13 miles from central London. Hayes End sits at an elevation of around 44 metres, near the neighbouring areas of Hillingdon Heath and Colham Green. Hayes End is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development of the region. Hayes End forms part of the wider North Hillingdon area, with Westminster about 13.6 miles to the southeast.
Hayes End and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Colham Green and North Hillingdon are among the towns around Hayes End, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout UB postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a UB10 0 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St Jerome's, a lay-by on the way to Knights Gardens, a driveway. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Salvation Army, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Hayes End people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere around Greater London: keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.