Park Royal: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Park Royal. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Stonebridge, as well as Park Royal, carry on two fluids; your motor gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to the 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. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Park Royal
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Rainsford Road before work, or in the car park outside Ashbourne Bar and Restaurant heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a strange car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in North Acton or the middle of Park Royal, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Park Royal forecourt or a drive over in Tokyngton, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Acton Main Line, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Greater London, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Coronation Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Park Royal?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the Shell or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Park Royal.
When your motor has been run already, stop safely then turn it off. Park Royal sits under 3 miles from the M4; there, use the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Park Royal is less work than a run of under 10 miles towards Westminster, so say.
Our arrival in Park Royal, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside West Twyford Primary School, near Odeon Luxe Acton or on your own driveway. Those replies determine this work and the price, so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, however long it sits. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Next our technicians start it and check it runs properly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. 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, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Park Royal itself
Park Royal is a locality in northwest London, situated on the River Brent at an elevation of around 37 metres. Park Royal lies close to the Grand Union Canal and is near several other localities, including North Acton, Lower Place, and West Acton. Park Royal is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located approximately 6.7 miles from central London.
AdBlue drains around Park Royal and across Greater London
Lower Place and West Acton are among the towns around Park Royal, a small village, that the same vans cover, throughout NW postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NW10 7.
Shifting your car is not necessary. Wherever it stands — near Alan Blumlein, on a layby heading to Bamboo trees, at home — that is where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Mary's West Twyford? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
For Park Royal motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever in Greater London: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.