AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Whitechapel: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Whitechapel. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven around Whitechapel and Tower Hill carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Whitechapel?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Whitechapel Road, or at The Buxton on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, keeps on. Spitalfields or the middle of Whitechapel: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Whitechapel or a drive out in St George in the East. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in 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 White Church Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift 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 car.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Whitechapel already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Shell, Asda or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car clear if asked. If you are on your own driveway in Whitechapel, leave the vehicle where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M11 — under 10 miles out of Whitechapel — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Whitechapel is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles towards London — so say about how far it went.
Whitechapel: what occurs when we arrive
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Shaheed Minar, or outside Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy. Those replies determine this work and our price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, however long it is left. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Then our technicians start it and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Whitechapel, for a moment
Whitechapel is a densely populated suburban area in the East End of London, situated approximately 2.6 miles east of central London. Whitechapel sits at a low elevation of around 19 metres above sea level, bordered by nearby areas such as Spitalfields, Aldgate, and Wapping. Whitechapel is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, accommodating a large and diverse population of around 25,812 residents.
Whitechapel and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Whitechapel is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Aldgate and Wapping among them, across the E postcode area. A postcode starting E1 6 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Isaac Rosenberg, a lay-by on the way to Altab Ali Park, a drive. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Stolen Space, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Whitechapel people
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Greater London.