Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Ewell: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle is around East Ewell. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round East Ewell and Stoneleigh carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt visit, again and again. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around East Ewell: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Banstead Road, or at The Famous Green Man on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of East Ewell or out in Ewell.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around East Ewell or a drive out in Nork. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Ewell East? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Surrey the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Queensmead Avenue.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Step five stays out.
East Ewell: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or anywhere else. Your own driveway in East Ewell is where it stays.
Where your motor has run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. On the M25, under 5 miles from East Ewell, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across East Ewell makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Westminster — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around East Ewell, and what takes place next
Our van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Kingdom Hall of Jehova's Witnesses, or by Ewell Grove Primary and Nursery School. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since the replies decide the work and our price. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About East Ewell itself
East Ewell is a suburban area in Surrey, situated approximately 12 miles south-west of central London. East Ewell lies near the towns of Ewell and Cheam, and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. East Ewell has a population of around 3005 people and is located at an elevation of 57 metres above sea level. East Ewell is also close to North Looe, although it is not directly adjacent to the coast.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, East Ewell included
East Ewell is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, North Looe and Cheam among them, across the KT postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a KT17 3 postcode for our van.
Your car stays put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Adrian Mann Theatre, a lay-by on the way to Nescot Centre for Sports Development, a driveway. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Pauls Howell Hill, ring and ask instead of assuming.
East Ewell people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever in Surrey: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.