Kentish Town: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Kentish Town. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels near Kentish Town and Lower Holloway carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
Kentish Town: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Leighton Road before work, or in the car park outside The Assembly House on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
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. Tufnell Park or the heart of Kentish Town: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Kentish Town or a driveway over in Maitland Park. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Leverton Place.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before 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 look again — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
Kentish Town: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine remains off. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally help to push the car away when asked. Your own driveway around Kentish Town is the place it should stay.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely then turn the vehicle off. Leave the M1 — under 5 miles out of Kentish Town — at the next junction. A short hop across Kentish Town is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 5 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Kentish Town: what occurs when our engineers get there
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by Kentish Town Church of England Primary School, near Kentish Town Library or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and quote. No one sets off before you've had our quote by phone.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Kentish Town, briefly
Kentish Town is a suburban area in north London, situated on the banks of the River Fleet and the Regent's Canal. Kentish Town has a mix of old and new buildings, with many flats and a vibrant high street. Kentish Town is close to several other neighbourhoods, including Tufnell Park, Gospel Oak, and Chalk Farm, and is about 3 miles from central London. Kentish Town sits at an elevation of around 36 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Kentish Town included
Kentish Town is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Gospel Oak and Chalk Farm among them, across the NW postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NW5 2.
Your car does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Falkland Place Open Space, a side street near Our Lady Help of Christians: we drain it where it is. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Christ Apostolic Church.
In short, for Kentish Town drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across Greater London.