Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bushey Mead: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Bushey Mead. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in West Barnes, like those in Bushey Mead, run on two liquids; your engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, different fillers. 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. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Bushey Mead?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Whatley Avenue, or on the way home in the car park outside Leather Bottle.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. It's a few seconds, whether in Raynes Park or right in the heart of Bushey Mead.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Bushey Mead or a driveway out in Morden. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark which belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Wimbledon Chase.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Greater London, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Martin Way at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the 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 is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bushey Mead?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Shell, BP or any other — the staff will usually help push the car clear, if you ask. At home in Bushey Mead? Then your car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M4 — under 10 miles out of Bushey Mead — at the first junction. A short hop across Bushey Mead is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians arrive in Bushey Mead
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near The Avenue Children's Centre, or by Joseph Hood Primary School. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies determine the work and our quote. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Bushey Mead itself
Bushey Mead is a suburban area in southwest London, situated approximately 8 miles from central London and close to the neighbouring areas of Raynes Park, Cottenham Park, and Merton Park. Bushey Mead has a population of around 10400 people and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock. Bushey Mead sits at a relatively low elevation of 16 metres above sea level, reflecting its location in the gently sloping landscape of the Thames Valley.
AdBlue drains about Bushey Mead, and Greater London beyond
Throughout SW postcodes, the teams covering Bushey Mead — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Merton Park and Cottenham Park among them. Fastest of all: quote a SW20 9 postcode for our van.
The car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Joseph Hood Recreation Ground, a side street close to Merton Park Baptist Church: we drain it where it sits. Awkward to explain, like the back of David Lloyd Raynes Park health club? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
For Bushey Mead motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Greater London: keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.