Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Johns Wood: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where the car sits in St Johns Wood, is usually all it needs when caught before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads round St Johns Wood and Swiss Cottage carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around St Johns Wood?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 Elm Tree Road before work, or in the car park outside The Duke Of York on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of St Johns Wood or out in Lisson Grove.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Little Venice or a forecourt around St Johns Wood.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside South Hampstead? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Circus Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around St Johns Wood?
Brief order, then. First: the engine stays off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Esso, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. At home around St Johns Wood? Then your car remains put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M1, under 5 miles from St Johns Wood, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a short hop across St Johns Wood makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Westminster — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around St Johns Wood
By St John's Wood Primary School, near Billy Fury or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. The replies determine this work and our quote, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we head off.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About St Johns Wood
St Johns Wood is a suburban area in northwest London, situated near the Regent's Canal and adjacent to Lisson Grove, Maida Vale, and South Hampstead. St Johns Wood is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located approximately 2.6 miles from central London. St Johns Wood sits at an elevation of around 49 metres, with Westminster just 3 miles away. St Johns Wood is a densely populated area with around 18,005 residents.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, St Johns Wood included
Maida Vale and South Hampstead are among the places near St Johns Wood, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over NW postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NW8 9.
No need to shift the car. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a street by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, or a layby on the way to Coronation Garden. Assuming won't help behind Memorial to Edward Onslow Ford, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for St Johns Wood motorists
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever across Greater London: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.