How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hayes Town
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Hayes Town. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Hayes Town and Hayes End carry, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Hayes Town
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Hughes Road before work, or in the car park outside The Botwell Inn on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Hayes or the middle of Hayes Town, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Hayes Town forecourt or a drive over in North Hyde, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- 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.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever in Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hitherbroom Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Hayes Town: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: your motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. Your own driveway around Hayes Town is the place it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M4 — under 3 miles out of Hayes Town — at the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hayes Town.
When we arrive in Hayes Town, what occurs?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Minet Infant and Nursery School, beside The Baptist Church or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because the answers determine the work and our quote. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole 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 the flush counts more here than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Next our engineers fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we go.
If the motor hasn't run, most 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 at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Hayes Town, briefly
Hayes Town is a locality in the western part of Greater London, situated approximately 12 miles from central London. Hayes Town sits at an elevation of around 33 metres, near the Grand Union Canal and close to neighbouring areas such as Hayes, Southall, and Yeading. Hayes Town has a population of around 6077 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Hayes Town, and Greater London beyond
Throughout UB postcodes, our vans that cover Hayes Town — a small village — work the surrounding spots too, Yeading and Southall among them. Give a postcode that starts UB3 3, and the van arrives fastest.
The vehicle does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near TK Maxx, a lay-by on the way to Minet Country Park, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of Hillingdon Cycle Circuit? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Hayes Town motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, wherever across Greater London: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.