Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rayners Lane
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when the motor hasn't run, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car is in Rayners Lane. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Rayners Lane and Roxeth carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Rayners Lane
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Alexandra Avenue, or at The Village Inn on the way home that evening.
New-to-you motors are second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. Whether it takes place in North Harrow or the middle of Rayners Lane, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Rayners Lane forecourt or a driveway over in Headstone, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 outside Northolt Park.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by Imperial Drive at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rayners Lane already?
Brief order, then. First: your motor remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Shell or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway around Rayners Lane is where it stays.
Where your motor has run already, stop somewhere safe then switch it off. On the M1, under 5 miles from Rayners Lane, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Rayners Lane makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Westminster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Rayners Lane: what takes place when our technicians arrive
The van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Harrow Town Sports Club, or by Longfield Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Rayners Lane
Rayners Lane is a suburban area in northwest London, situated near the River Pinn and close to the boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon. Rayners Lane has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Rayners Lane is located about 11.5 miles from central London and is near several other suburban areas, including North Harrow, West Harrow, and South Harrow. Rayners Lane sits at an elevation of around 54 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains round Rayners Lane, and Greater London beyond
Rayners Lane is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, West Harrow and South Harrow among them, across the HA postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning HA5 5, and the van gets there quickest.
Your car stays where it is. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road by Harrow Quaker Meeting, or a lay-by towards Rayners Mead. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of 1st Rayners Lane Scouts, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Rayners Lane motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.