How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Vale of Health
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Vale of Health, catching it before the motor runs usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — but many newer diesels driven about Vale of Health and Hampstead Heath carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Vale of Health?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Holford Road before work, or in the car park at Duke of Hamilton on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, keeps on. It's a few seconds, whether in Hampstead or right in the centre of Vale of Health.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Vale of Health forecourt or a driveway out in Childs Hill, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Hampstead Heath? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Whitestone Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Vale of Health: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays off. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — BP, Gulf or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. On your own drive in Vale of Health? Then your car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Vale of Health lies under 3 miles from the M1; on it, use the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Vale of Health is smaller work than a run of under 5 miles to Westminster, and so tell us.
Vale of Health: what occurs when we turn up
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Christ Church Primary School, Hampstead, near Thomas J. Barratt or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. No one heads out before you have heard our price by phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then we fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Vale of Health and where it is
Vale of Health is a suburban area in north London, situated near Hampstead and Frognal, with a mix of residential flats and local amenities. Vale of Health sits at an elevation of around 136 metres, overlooking the surrounding urban landscape. Vale of Health is close to central London, being approximately 4.3 miles from the city centre and 4.7 miles from Westminster. Vale of Health has a population of around 5992 people, predominantly residing in flats.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Vale of Health included
Over NW postcodes, our vans that cover Vale of Health — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, North End and Frognal among them. Quote a postcode that starts NW3 1, and the van gets there fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it stands — near Sir Thomas Beecham, in a layby en route to West Heath, at home — that is where it gets emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Friedrich von Hügel? By a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Vale of Health drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.