Castelnau: 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 then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car sits in Castelnau, is usually what it needs if found before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many newer diesels driven about Castelnau and West Kensington hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on each tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Castelnau: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Castelnau, or on the way home in the car park at The Bridge.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Castelnau or out in Hammersmith.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Chiswick or a forecourt in Castelnau.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Kensington Olympia, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Greater London, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Arundel Terrace.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read it.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently through its own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Castelnau?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Keep your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. On your own drive in Castelnau? So the vehicle stays where it is.
When the motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch it off. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M4, under 3 miles from Castelnau. Distance counts — a quick hop across Castelnau makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles towards Westminster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Castelnau, and what occurs next
By Lowther Primary School, near Holy Trinity Barnes or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide the work and the quote. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Castelnau
Castelnau is a suburban area in southwest London, situated on the banks of the River Thames. Castelnau sits at a low elevation of around 7 metres, with lakeside views and proximity to nearby Hammersmith and Brook Green. Castelnau is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, with a mix of old and new developments. Castelnau is close to the city centre, with Westminster just 4.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Castelnau and across Greater London
Brook Green and Barnes are among the towns near Castelnau, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout SW postcodes. A postcode starting SW13 9 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Riverview Gardens, a side street near John Colet statue: we drain the vehicle where it is. Assuming won't help at the back of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Castelnau motorists
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.