Egham: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your car sits around Egham, is normally what it takes when caught before your engine runs. Here before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads round Egham and Thorpe Lea carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Egham
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off High Street, or heading home in the car park outside The Crown.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange vehicle.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Ripley Springs or the heart of Egham: it is the same few seconds in both.
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 drive in Englefield Green or a forecourt around Egham.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to your diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — from the nearest station's car park, say — not when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is across Surrey — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Grange Road on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler remained closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Egham: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the BP, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Egham.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the M25, under a mile from Egham. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Egham.
What happens when we turn up around Egham
By Manorcroft Primary School, near Everyman or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers determine this work and the price. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, however long it sits. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we go, our engineers start it and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Egham and where it is
Egham is a town in north-west Surrey, situated near the River Thames and approximately 19 miles from central London. Egham has a relatively low elevation of around 19 metres above sea level and is close to notable locations such as Runnymede and Royal Holloway. Egham is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and a population of around 15,290 residents. Egham benefits from its proximity to nearby cities, including Westminster, which is about 18.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Egham, and Surrey beyond
As a town, Egham has the same vans as nearby places — Runnymede, Royal Holloway — right across TW postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a TW20 9 postcode to our van.
The car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a road near Egham Museum, or a layby on the way to Walnut Tree Gardens. Awkward to pin down, like the back of United Church of Egham? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
For Egham drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Surrey.