Roxeth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Roxeth, finding it before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Roxeth and South Harrow carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the error lives.
Roxeth: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off The Crescent, perhaps at Salt Bar on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Roxeth or out in Harrow on the Hill.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Rayners Lane or a forecourt around Roxeth, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Harrow-on-the-Hill.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Greater London, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Osmond Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Roxeth: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away if asked. If you're on your own driveway in Roxeth, leave it where it stands.
When your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. Roxeth lies under 5 miles from the M1; on it, take the next junction. A short hop across Roxeth is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Roxeth: what takes place when our technicians turn up
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Roxeth Primary School, near Harrow Royal British Legion or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before we go, our engineers start it and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Roxeth
Roxeth is a suburban area in northwest London, situated approximately 10 miles from the city centre. Roxeth sits at an elevation of around 70 metres, with its residential landscape dominated by flat dwellings. Roxeth is located near several neighbouring communities, including Harrow on the Hill, Harrow, and West Harrow, and is home to a population of around 11,452 people.
Roxeth and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout HA postcodes, the vans covering Roxeth — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, West Harrow and Harrow included. Fastest of all: give a HA2 0 postcode to the van.
Shifting your car isn't needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Philathletic Ground, a side street near Northhold Road Communal Hall: our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Air Training Corps - 1454 Harrow Squadron, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
For Roxeth people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Greater London: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.