Leyton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if your motor has run since it was put in. Out in Central Parade or right in Leyton, an unstarted engine should stay unrun. Leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Leyton. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Stage one stays unchanged, even though the job is bigger.
Further down: the situations we see, wherever in Greater London. Pick yours.
At the petrol pump in Leyton: AdBlue in a diesel
You are at the pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. Whether BP, Esso or anywhere else in Leyton, the case is the same.
Meaning? Spotting it here is as good as it can be. The AdBlue is inside the tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up just to free up the petrol pump. A few things: a shove into a bay with the attendants helping, the receipt saved, and a call to us from where you stand. Draining it there at the petrol pump is fine when it can't be moved, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
At home around Leyton with AdBlue in your diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look once more at the cap. Drives close to Capworth Street see it as much as any other street.
Meaning? As long as your car has not been driven since, it is second to the forecourt case. At the floor of your tank is exactly where AdBlue stays, since it won't blend with diesel — and a night passing changes nothing of the difference.
Put your keys indoors tonight — or a person might take it off at breakfast — and call us. Our technicians drain the car on your driveway, whether that is around Leyton or out in Walthamstow Village. The equipment runs quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Leyton: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a short way after the fill. Perhaps it was on Leyton Green Road, perhaps on the way out towards London, under 10 miles away.
What it means: the fuel system has sucked the AdBlue in. The injection pump and each injector get it as well on a bigger run, after your filter and lines have had it. Every restart, like every mile, carries it deeper.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so then switch off. On the M11, under 3 miles from Leyton, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Do not restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call, and say how far your car went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
It is a vehicle you have had for a week. Your own car either has no AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, and so nothing warned you the AdBlue cap sits right next to your diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere in Greater London.
The upshot: exactly as above, divided by whether it ran, but with an added stage. Plenty of hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on your car.
Next: ring the hire company or the fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before we arrive is faster. Hanging on for an answer at the car park at Leyton Midland Road, or near Leyton Leisure Centre? Leave the car off meanwhile.
Leyton: unsure if it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest answer there is. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia about your filler, and you cannot remember which cap you took off. Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Barclay Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Walthamstow.
What it means: a little spilled round your filler does no damage to your motor. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in the tank, turning on the car will pull it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Take it that it went in, and never start the key. Inspecting a tank that turns out free of AdBlue beats draining one after it's been run — so phone then describe to us what you saw.
The common ground in each Leyton AdBlue drain
The job begins the same way, whichever your case. Filling station, driveway, Prince of Wales's car park or a road by Community Place — our van reaches the vehicle, and three answers come next: which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run. Replies shape the work; the price follows on the call while nobody has left yet.
Then the tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Not started? In that case roughly half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
We start the car at the end. With clean diesel in, it runs while our technicians check it's running properly, and then we go. Our technicians do the whole job where the car is, and permanent damage is very uncommon if it has been caught quickly. Nothing is taken upfront, settlement happens on the day, and you get what the insurer asks for: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. It is worth remembering: lots of insurers offer misfuelling cover, so a quick look at your documents while you wait pays.
About Leyton
Leyton is a locality in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, situated approximately 6.8 miles northeast of central London. Leyton sits at an elevation of around 19 metres, near the River Lea and close to neighbouring areas such as Walthamstow Village and Leytonstone. Leyton is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban character. Leyton is also near Upper Walthamstow, with which it shares some community ties.
Leyton and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a small village, Leyton has the same vans as the nearby towns — Upper Walthamstow, Leytonstone — all the way through E postcodes. Fastest of all: a E10 6 postcode to show your location.
Whether the car is on a lay-by on the way to Leyton Green or in a car park in the middle of Leyton, it doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're by Barclay Christian Centre, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
In one line: your scenario
Engine never started: ring, leaving it switched off. Run already? Stop, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder whatever it is, in Leyton and Greater London, on 0333 366 0103.