Upper Edmonton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In Upper Edmonton, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Upper Edmonton and Tower Gardens carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upper Edmonton: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Bolton Road, perhaps outside The White Horse on the way home after work.
New-to-you vehicles are next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Edmonton or the middle of Upper Edmonton: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Palmers Green or a forecourt around Upper Edmonton, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Silver Street? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Greater London, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Somerset Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Upper Edmonton already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many 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 your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Esso or another — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own drive in Upper Edmonton is where it stays.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. On the M11, under 5 miles from Upper Edmonton, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards London, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Edmonton.
When our technicians turn up in Upper Edmonton, what happens?
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Pymmes Park Amphitheatre, or outside St John and St James CofE Primary School. Which fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers decide both work and quote. On the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. 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. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle is tested. After that our technicians start it and make sure it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Upper Edmonton, for a moment
Upper Edmonton is a suburban area in the London Borough of Enfield, situated near the River Lea and close to the neighbouring districts of Edmonton and Northumberland Park. Upper Edmonton sits at a low elevation of around 18 metres, with a high proportion of flat dwellings that reflect its urban character. Upper Edmonton is located approximately 7.7 miles from central London, making it a commuter-friendly residential area.
AdBlue drains around Upper Edmonton and across Greater London
Throughout N postcodes, the teams that cover Upper Edmonton — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Lower Edmonton and Northumberland Park included. A postcode starting N18 1 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Fore Street Library, or a layby on the way to Pymmes Park. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Gallery Fore.
For Upper Edmonton people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.