Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cartbridge: Why It Happens
Keep your motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Cartbridge. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many current diesels on the roads around Cartbridge and Kingfield carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. Diesel gets filled at every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Cartbridge
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Send Road, or heading home in the car park outside The New Inn.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether in Old Woking or bang in the heart of Cartbridge.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Cartbridge or a driveway over in Send Grove. Seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Woking? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is in Surrey — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Broadmeads, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Cartbridge?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays off. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Shell, Texaco or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Cartbridge.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit means where to come off when you are on the M25, under 5 miles from Cartbridge. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Cartbridge is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Westminster, and so say.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Cartbridge
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Lancaster Hall, or outside Kingfield Primary School. The replies settle this work and our price, and so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. During the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Cartbridge itself
Cartbridge is a suburban area in Surrey, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 26 metres. Cartbridge lies near the towns of Old Woking and Send, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Cartbridge is located approximately 23 miles from London, making it a commuter base for those working in the capital. Cartbridge has a small population of around 1185 residents.
Cartbridge and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Send and Westfield are among the places near Cartbridge, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over GU postcodes. Give a postcode that starts GU23 7, and our van gets there quickest.
The vehicle does not need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Millmoor Common (CL52), a side street close to Send WW1 Memorial: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St. Peter's Church, Old Woking, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Cartbridge people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Surrey.