Perivale: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. In Perivale, finding it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels in Stonebridge, as well as Perivale, carry on two liquids; the motor gets only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Perivale
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Launceston Road before work, or in the car park outside The Myllet Arms on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a strange vehicle.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Alperton or the middle of Perivale, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Park Royal or a forecourt around Perivale, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Sudbury & Harrow Road's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Greater London, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Torrington Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Perivale?
Short order, then. First: your engine stays off. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Perivale, leave the car where it stands.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. The next exit is the place to leave when you're on the M4, under 5 miles from Perivale. Mileage counts — a short hop across Perivale is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Westminster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Perivale, and what happens next
Outside St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, near St. Mary with St. Nicholas - Perivale or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set the work and price. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. Next our engineers start the car and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Perivale and where it is
Perivale is a suburban area in northwest London, situated on the River Brent at an elevation of around 23 metres. Perivale lies approximately 8.3 miles from central London and is close to nearby places such as Alperton, Wembley, and Sudbury. Perivale has a population of around 8287 people and is predominantly composed of terraced housing. Perivale is characterized by its riverside setting and residential community.
AdBlue drains round Perivale, and Greater London beyond
As a residential suburb, Perivale shares its vans nearby places — Wembley, Sudbury — right through UB postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode that starts UB6 7, and the van arrives quickest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Sudbury Golf Course, a side street close to Perivale Library: our engineers drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind Saint John Fisher Catholic Church, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Perivale drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.