How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Spitalfields
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Spitalfields. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Spitalfields and Tower Hill run, with diesel feeding your 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 has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Spitalfields?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Brick Lane, or on the way home in the car park at Pride of Spitalfields.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Spitalfields or out in Whitechapel.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Spitalfields or a driveway out in Bethnal Green. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — from Shoreditch High Street's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere across Greater London the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Fournier Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Spitalfields?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Shell, Asda or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car away when asked. At home around Spitalfields? So your car stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Spitalfields sits under 10 miles from the M11; on it, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards London, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Spitalfields.
What takes place when our technicians arrive around Spitalfields
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Christ Church CofE School, beside House of Annetta or at home, the van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since the replies decide the work and our quote. No one heads out until you have had the price by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole 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 that counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Spitalfields
Spitalfields is a suburban area in the East End of London, situated near the River Thames and close to the city's financial district. Spitalfields sits at an elevation of around 21 metres, with many of its residents living in flats. Spitalfields is bordered by nearby places such as Whitechapel, Aldgate, and Shoreditch, and is home to a diverse population of approximately 22,191 people.
AdBlue drains in Spitalfields and across Greater London
Spitalfields is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Aldgate and Shoreditch among them, across the E postcode area. Give a postcode beginning E1 6, and the van gets there quickest.
There's no need to shift the car. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Brick Lane Jamme Masjid, or a lay-by on the way to Christ Church Churchyard. Guessing doesn't help behind The Museum of Immigration and Diversity at 19 Princelet Street, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Spitalfields drivers
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Greater London.