Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Walthamstow: Why It Happens
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. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle stands in Upper Walthamstow, is usually all it needs when caught before the motor runs. Here before the event? Then the rest covers how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels near Upper Walthamstow and Leyton carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Upper Walthamstow?
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Wood Street before work, or in the car park outside The Flower Pot on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange car.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. Walthamstow or the heart of Upper Walthamstow: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Walthamstow Forest or a forecourt in Upper Walthamstow, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — from Wood Street's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Greater London, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush by Barrett Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Upper Walthamstow already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you're on your own drive in Upper Walthamstow, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M11 — under 3 miles out of Upper Walthamstow — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Upper Walthamstow is less work than a trip of under 10 miles to London, so say.
Upper Walthamstow: what happens when our engineers get there
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Mary's CofE Primary School, close to Grace Community Church or on your own driveway. The replies decide the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Upper Walthamstow, briefly
Upper Walthamstow is a suburban area in northeast London, situated approximately 7.7 miles from central London and 6.3 miles from the city centre. Upper Walthamstow sits at an elevation of around 27 metres, characterised by a high proportion of flat dwellings. Upper Walthamstow is close to nearby places such as Walthamstow, Walthamstow Village, and Central Parade, and has a population of around 15261 residents.
AdBlue drains around Upper Walthamstow and across Greater London
Throughout E postcodes, our vans that cover Upper Walthamstow — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Central Parade and Walthamstow Village among them. A postcode starting E17 3 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Wood Street Tabernacle, or a lay-by towards Greenway Avenue Nature Conservation Area. Tricky to explain, like the back of Pied Wagtails - Wood Street Walls? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Upper Walthamstow people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Greater London.