How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stanmore
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits in Stanmore, is normally what it takes when found before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Stanmore and Little Stanmore carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Stanmore: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Stanmore Hill, or on the way home in the car park outside Abercorn Arms.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Canons Park or the heart of Stanmore: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Stanmore forecourt or a drive out in Edgware, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark which goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask 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 at Harrow & Wealdstone.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever in Greater London, use this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Church Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stanmore already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Canons Corner, Asda Express or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Stanmore.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. On the M1, under 3 miles from Stanmore, that means the next exit. A short hop across Stanmore is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Stanmore: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Our van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Stanmore public library, or outside St John's CofE School. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and price. No one sets off until you've had our price over the phone.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run need about half an hour after we arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Stanmore
Stanmore is a locality in northwest London, situated approximately 11 miles from central London and 9 miles from St Albans. Stanmore sits at an elevation of around 87 metres, near the tube station that serves the area and its surrounding neighbourhoods, including Canons Park and Belmont. Stanmore is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, which are home to a population of around 4664 residents. Stanmore is also close to Harrow Weald, with which it shares some local amenities.
AdBlue drains about Stanmore, and Greater London beyond
Throughout HA postcodes, our vans that cover Stanmore — a small village — work the nearby spots too, Harrow Weald and Belmont included. Quote a postcode beginning HA7 4, and the van arrives fastest.
Your car remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Stanmore Bowls Club, a lay-by on the way to Bernays Gardens, a drive. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St John the Evangelist, Great Stanmore.
In short, for Stanmore drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere in Greater London: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.