Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Temple: Why It Occurs
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Temple. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Covent Garden, like those in Temple, carry on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Temple?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Fountain Court before work, or in the car park at The Devereux on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars are second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because 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 Temple or out in Aldwych.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Temple forecourt or a drive over in Bankside, take a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say 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 London Blackfriars.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is in Greater London — a routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Milford Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, 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.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Temple: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own drive in Temple is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Temple lies under 10 miles from the M1; there, use the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Temple is smaller a job than a run of under a mile towards London, so say.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Temple
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether outside St Clement Danes CofE Primary School, near Fig Tree Court or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set both work and quote. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. 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. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Temple
Temple is a small suburban area in central London, situated on the north bank of the River Thames. Temple sits at a low elevation of around 15 metres, close to the heart of the city, and is surrounded by other notable areas such as Aldwych and Blackfriars. Temple is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban character. Temple is also near Holborn, another major London district.
AdBlue drains around Temple and across Greater London
Throughout EC4Y postcodes, the vans that cover Temple — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Holborn and Blackfriars among them. Fastest of all: give a EC4Y 9 postcode for the van.
There's no need to shift your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Middle Temple Garden, a side street close to Two Temple Place: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Assuming won't help behind Monument Queen Victoria visits The City, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
In short, for Temple drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.