Bostall Woods: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine hasn't turned, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits in Bostall Woods. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Bostall Woods and Abbey Wood run, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Bostall Woods
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 Elmsted Crescent before work, or in the car park outside Foresters Arms on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Bostall Woods or out in Bostall Heath.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Bostall Woods or a driveway out in East Wickham. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Abbey Wood's car park, say — not when the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are in Greater London — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Downe Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bostall Woods?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, BP or another — the attendants will usually help push your car away, when you ask. If you are on your own drive around Bostall Woods, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M25 — under 10 miles out of Bostall Woods — at the next junction. A short hop across Bostall Woods is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we get there around Bostall Woods, what happens?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by Hillsgrove Primary School, beside St Andrew or at home, our van travels to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle the work and our price. On the call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Your engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. 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, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Bostall Woods, for a moment
Bostall Woods is a suburban area in southeast London, situated near the River Thames at an elevation of around 66 metres. Bostall Woods borders several other local areas, including Bostall Heath and Lesnes Abbey, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Bostall Woods is located approximately 10 miles from central London, making it a commuter-friendly residential area. Bostall Woods has a population of around 6509 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Bostall Woods included
Bostall Woods is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Lesnes Abbey and West Heath among them, across the DA postcode area. A postcode starting DA16 1 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by St Michael's, or a lay-by towards the green space at the edge of the village. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Owl.
For Bostall Woods people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Greater London.