Stoke Newington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Stoke Newington. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Stoke Newington and Highbury carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on each filling station visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stoke Newington: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Albion Road before work, or in the car park outside Rose & Crown heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have 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, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's a few seconds, be it in Brownswood Park or bang in the centre of Stoke Newington.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Stoke Newington or a drive out in Shacklewell. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is in Greater London — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Lordship Terrace.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the 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.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stoke Newington?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Stoke Newington.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M11, under 10 miles from Stoke Newington, that means the next junction. A short hop across Stoke Newington is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around Stoke Newington, what takes place?
By Grazebrook Primary School, close to Stoke Newington Town Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. What fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set both work and quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. After the filter is flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and check that it's running properly.
If the motor 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. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Stoke Newington itself
Stoke Newington is a locality in north-east London, situated on the shores of the East Reservoir and the West Reservoir, at an elevation of around 35 metres. Stoke Newington is bounded by other localities such as Brownswood Park, West Hackney, and Stamford Hill. Stoke Newington has a population of approximately 8405 people, predominantly residing in flats. Stoke Newington is located close to the centre of London, about 4.2 miles from the city centre.
AdBlue drains around Stoke Newington and across Greater London
Over N postcodes, our vans that cover Stoke Newington — a small village — work the nearby locations too, Stamford Hill and West Hackney among them. A postcode starting N16 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays put. We drain it where it is — a side street near Stoke Newington Public Library, a lay-by on the way to Church Street Gardens, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Borough Of Stoke Newington War Memorial Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Stoke Newington motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Greater London.