How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hayes
Leave your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Hayes. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Hayes End, as well as Hayes, run on two liquids; your engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Hayes
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Station Road before work, or in the car park at The Botwell Inn on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Hayes Town or the heart of Hayes: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Hillingdon Heath or a forecourt around Hayes, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which belongs in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Hayes & Harlington? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever around Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of East Avenue, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel side stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure your diesel filler remained shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
Hayes: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Asda or another — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. If you're on your own drive around Hayes, leave it where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M4 — under a mile out of Hayes — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Hayes is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Westminster, and so say.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Hayes
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Botwell House Catholic Primary School, near The Village or on your own drive. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set both work and quote. Nobody heads out until you have heard the price over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and the system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Hayes itself
Hayes is a locality in west London, situated on the River Crane and Grand Union Canal, with a mix of residential and commercial areas. Hayes is characterized by its flat landscape, with an average elevation of around 35 metres, and is located approximately 12.5 miles from central London. Hayes forms part of a larger urban area that includes nearby Hayes Town, Harlington, and Cranford. Hayes has a population of around 6902 people, predominantly living in flat accommodations.
AdBlue drains around Hayes and across Greater London
Over UB postcodes, our vans covering Hayes — a small village — work the surrounding places too, Cranford and Harlington among them. Quickest of all: give a UB3 2 postcode to our van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Mall in the Wall, a lay-by on the way to The Park, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Botwell Green Library, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Hayes drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere across Greater London: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.