Bandonhill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car stands around Bandonhill, is normally what it takes if found before the engine runs. If you are 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 motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Bandonhill and Wallington hold another fluid as well. 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. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
Bandonhill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Sandy Lane North, perhaps outside The Plough on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Bandonhill or out in Beddington.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Bandonhill forecourt or a drive over in Waddon, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Wallington, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Greater London, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Treasury Close, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bandonhill?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. At home around Bandonhill? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M23, under 10 miles from Bandonhill, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Bandonhill is less work than a run of under 10 miles to Westminster, so tell us.
Our arrival in Bandonhill, and what happens next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside High View Primary School, close to St Elphege's Church or on your own driveway. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those replies settle this work and the price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears away on its own, however long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians start the car and check that it's running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Bandonhill, briefly
Bandonhill is a suburban area in the London Borough of Sutton, situated approximately 10 miles from central London. Bandonhill sits at an elevation of around 55 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Bandonhill is located near other suburban areas such as Beddington and Roundshaw, and is part of the wider South London conurbation. Bandonhill has a population of around 8995 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains around Bandonhill, and Greater London beyond
Being a residential suburb, Bandonhill has the same vans as nearby places — Roundshaw, South Beddington — all the way through SM postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode that starts SM6 8, and the van arrives fastest.
Your car does not need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Mellows Park, a side street near The Centre Wallington: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St. Michael's and All Angels, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Bandonhill motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Greater London.