Ewhurst: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your car stands in Ewhurst, is normally all it takes when caught before your engine runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around Forest Green, as well as Ewhurst, run on two liquids; your engine takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Ewhurst?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Mapledrakes Road, perhaps outside Bulls Head on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ewhurst or out in Ewhurst Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Cranleigh or a forecourt in Ewhurst, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The 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.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Ockley.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Surrey the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Old Bakery Court, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ewhurst already?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Murco, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. At home in Ewhurst? Then the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M25, under 15 miles from Ewhurst, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ewhurst.
When we arrive in Ewhurst, what occurs?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ewhurst CofE Aided Infant School, close to Ewhurst Village Hall or on your own drive. The replies determine this work and our quote, so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, however long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Ewhurst
Ewhurst is a village in Surrey, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 91 metres. Ewhurst has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is located near other small communities such as Ewhurst Green and Mayes Green. Ewhurst is also close to the village of Walliswood and is within commuting distance of larger cities like Brighton and Hove. Ewhurst has a population of approximately 1081 residents.
AdBlue drains around Ewhurst and across Surrey
Ewhurst is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Mayes Green and Walliswood among them, across the GU postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting GU6 7.
No need to shift your car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Peter & St Paul's, a lay-by on the way to Sayers Croft, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Ewhurst Bowling Club.
In short, for Ewhurst motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Surrey.