Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Green: Why It Happens
Stop here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the car is around West Green. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around West Green and Tottenham run, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around West Green?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off La Rose Lane before work, or in the car park outside K K McCools on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it in Harringay or right in the heart of West Green.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Turnpike Lane or a forecourt around West Green, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or company car — from Seven Sisters's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Clinton Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds 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.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Green?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Sainsbury's, Esso or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive around West Green, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M11 — under 10 miles out of West Green — at the next exit. A short hop across West Green is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
West Green: what occurs when our technicians get there
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether outside Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane, beside West Green War Memorial or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one sets off before you have heard our price by phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About West Green
West Green is a suburban area in north London, situated near the River Lea and close to the neighbouring districts of Harringay and Tottenham Green. West Green sits at a relatively low elevation of 19 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. West Green is located approximately 5.7 miles from central London, making it a popular residential choice for those working in the city. West Green benefits from its proximity to several nearby transport links, including those connecting to Seven Sisters and beyond.
AdBlue drains around West Green and across Greater London
Being a residential suburb, West Green shares its vans nearby places — Tottenham Green, Seven Sisters — all the way across N postcodes and the wider area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting N15 3.
Your car stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Downhills Park, a side street close to Tottenham Seventh Day Adventist Church: our engineers drain the car where it sits. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Etherley Road Spiritualist Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for West Green drivers
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.