Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wealdstone: Why It Happens
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Wealdstone, catching it before the motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. 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 car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Headstone, as well as Wealdstone, run on two liquids; the engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
Wealdstone: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Montrose Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Three Wishes.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Belmont or the heart of Wealdstone: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Kenton or a forecourt around Wealdstone, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark what goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Harrow & Wealdstone? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Locket Road Mews at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wealdstone?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave your ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Asda Express or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. At home around Wealdstone? So the vehicle stays where it is.
When your motor has run by now, stop safely and turn it off. On the M1, under 3 miles from Wealdstone, that means the next exit. A short hop across Wealdstone is a smaller job than a run towards St Albans, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Wealdstone, and what occurs next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, be it by Belmont School, near Wealdstone Methodist Church or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Wealdstone itself
Wealdstone is a suburban area in northwest London, situated approximately 10.8 miles from central London and close to the Hertfordshire border. Wealdstone sits at an elevation of around 57 metres, near the top of a gentle slope that falls away to the south. Wealdstone is characterised by its predominantly flat-based housing stock, with nearby areas including Belmont, Greenhill, and Harrow Weald. Wealdstone has a population of around 14,968 residents.
AdBlue drains about Wealdstone, and Greater London beyond
Wealdstone is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Greenhill and Harrow Weald among them, across the HA postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting HA3 7.
The car does not need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Wealdstone Baptist Church, a lay-by on the way to Weald Village Open Space, a drive. Guessing doesn't help behind North London Revival Fellowship, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Wealdstone people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.