AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chaldon: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Chaldon, is normally what it needs if found before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Warwick Wold, as well as Chaldon, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Chaldon: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Rook Lane, or on the way home in the car park at Caterham Arms.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Old Coulsdon or the middle of Chaldon, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Merstham or a forecourt around Chaldon.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Caterham? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Surrey that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside Willey Broom Lane at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Chaldon already?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Texaco, Esso or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear when asked. Your own driveway in Chaldon is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M23 — under 3 miles out of Chaldon — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Chaldon makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Westminster — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Chaldon, and what happens next
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Chaldon Village Hall, or by St Peter and St Paul Church Primary School. Those replies decide the work and our price, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Before leaving, our technicians start the car and confirm that it is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers are there. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Chaldon and where it is
Chaldon is a small village in Surrey, situated on a hilltop at an elevation of 188 metres, with views towards the North Downs. Chaldon is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near the towns of Caterham and Old Coulsdon. Chaldon remains a quiet, rural community despite being relatively close to London, at a distance of approximately 15.7 miles. Chaldon is also near Netherne on-the-Hill, another settlement in the area.
AdBlue drains around Chaldon and across Surrey
Being a rural village, Chaldon has the same vans as nearby areas — Caterham, Netherne on-the-Hill — all the way through CR postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode that starts CR3 5, and our van arrives quickest.
Your car remains where it is. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road by Church of St Peter and St Paul, or a lay-by towards Fryern Broom Wood. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Chaldon Church Mural, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Chaldon motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere around Surrey: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.