Biggin Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Biggin Hill. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Biggin Hill and Berrys Green run, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Biggin Hill
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Church Road before work, or in the car park outside The Black Horse on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Biggin Hill or out in Aperfield.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Single Street or a forecourt in Biggin Hill.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Woldingham.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Greater London, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Temple Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Biggin Hill already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Sunningvale Service Station, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Biggin Hill.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M25, under 3 miles from Biggin Hill. Mileage counts — a short hop across Biggin Hill is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Westminster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in Biggin Hill
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Biggin Hill Memorial Library and Swimming Pool, or outside Biggin Hill Primary School. Those answers settle the work and our price, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Biggin Hill
Biggin Hill is a locality in the London Borough of Bromley, situated inland at an elevation of 187 metres. Biggin Hill lies approximately 15 miles southeast of central London, near the settlements of Aperfield and Luxted. Biggin Hill is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and a population of around 2952 residents. Biggin Hill remains a residential area with connections to nearby Westminster and other parts of Greater London.
Biggin Hill and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TN postcodes, the vans covering Biggin Hill — a small village — work the surrounding spots too, Luxted and South Street among them. Quickest of all: quote a TN16 3 postcode to our van.
Your car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside St Mark's Church, in a lay-by en route to Wildlife and Sensory Garden, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing doesn't help behind Aperfield Women's Institute Hall, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
For Biggin Hill drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.