How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Denmark Hill
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Denmark Hill. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is what many modern diesels around Denmark Hill and Kennington run, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, again and again. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Denmark Hill: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Champion Park, or at The Phoenix on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Camberwell or the heart of Denmark Hill: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Denmark Hill or a driveway over in Herne Hill. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many motors show what belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Windsor Walk on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Denmark Hill?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the JET or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive around Denmark Hill? So the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means the place to leave if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Denmark Hill. About how far did it go? Hopping across Denmark Hill is smaller a job than a run of under 3 miles to Westminster, and so say.
Denmark Hill: what takes place when our engineers turn up
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Maternity, or by Lyndhurst Primary School. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the replies determine this work and our price. Nobody sets off before you have had our price by phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Denmark Hill itself
Denmark Hill is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 3.2 miles from the city centre. Denmark Hill sits at an elevation of around 22 metres, overlooking the surrounding areas of Camberwell, Brixton, and Peckham. Denmark Hill is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, which house its population of around 15978 residents. Denmark Hill is close to Westminster, being only 2.8 miles away from the city.
AdBlue drains around Denmark Hill and across Greater London
Over SE postcodes, our vans that cover Denmark Hill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Peckham and Brixton among them. Fastest of all: give a SE5 8 postcode to our van.
The vehicle stays put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to DNA Sculpture, a lay-by on the way to Ruskin Park Community Garden, a driveway. Guessing won't help at the back of General William Booth, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Denmark Hill drivers: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Greater London.