How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Sheen
Stop here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around East Sheen, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near East Sheen and Barnes run, with diesel feeding your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in East Sheen?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Palmerston Road before work, or in the car park outside The Plough on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Mortlake or the middle of East Sheen: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Kew or a forecourt in East Sheen.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Mortlake's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Wayside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around East Sheen already?
Do not start the engine: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Texaco or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, when you ask. At home in East Sheen? So the vehicle stays put.
Where the motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. Come off the M4 — under 3 miles out of East Sheen — at the next junction. A short hop across East Sheen is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around East Sheen, what happens?
By Sheen Mount Primary School, near Kitty Godfree or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because those replies determine the work and the price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that our engineers start it and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About East Sheen, briefly
East Sheen is a suburban area in south-west London, situated approximately 6.8 miles from central London and close to the River Thames. East Sheen has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and it is near neighbouring areas such as Mortlake and North Sheen. East Sheen sits at a relatively low elevation of around 18 metres above sea level, in a gently sloping area of the London Basin. East Sheen is also near Roehampton, another suburban area in south-west London.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, East Sheen included
East Sheen is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, North Sheen and Roehampton among them, across the SW postcode area. Give a postcode that starts SW14 8, and our van gets there fastest.
The car stays put. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street near Richard Dimbleby, or a lay-by towards Sheen Park Cricket Club. Awkward to explain, like the back of East Sheen Baptist Church? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
The short version for East Sheen drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in Greater London: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.