Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marylebone: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Marylebone, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Marylebone and Soho carry, with diesel for your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Marylebone: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off New Cavendish Street, or heading home in the car park outside The King's Head.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, whether out in Fitzrovia or bang in the centre of Marylebone.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Somers Town or a forecourt in Marylebone, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in each filler right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Bond Street, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across Greater London — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Westmoreland Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Marylebone?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Esso, BP or any other — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. On your own drive around Marylebone? So the car remains where it is.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. On the M1, under 5 miles from Marylebone, that means the next exit. A short hop across Marylebone is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 3 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we get there around Marylebone, what happens?
Outside St Vincent's Catholic Primary School, near Victor Weisz, "Vicky" or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since the replies decide the work and quote. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then your tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes out on its own, however long it sits. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Marylebone, for a moment
Marylebone is a suburban area in central London, situated near the River Thames and close to the city's main attractions. Marylebone sits at an elevation of 32 metres, with its residential areas comprising mainly flats. Marylebone is bordered by nearby places such as Fitzrovia, Mayfair, and Regents Park, and is within walking distance of Westminster. Marylebone has a population of approximately 12,515 people.
AdBlue drains round Marylebone, and Greater London beyond
Throughout W1G postcodes, our teams that cover Marylebone — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Regents Park and Mayfair among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting W1G 8.
The car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Manchester Square, a side street close to Marylebone Library: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Charles Wesley.
For Marylebone drivers, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.