Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fetcham Grove: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits in Fetcham Grove, is usually what it needs when found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Fetcham Grove and Givons Grove carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Fetcham Grove: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Bridge Street, or on the way home in the car park outside The Running Horse.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Leatherhead or the middle of Fetcham Grove, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Leatherhead Common or a forecourt around Fetcham Grove.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a rental or company car — at Leatherhead's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Surrey that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of B2122, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is 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 car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Fetcham Grove?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive in Fetcham Grove, leave the car where it sits.
When the engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Leave the M25 — under a mile out of Fetcham Grove — at the first exit. A short hop across Fetcham Grove is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we arrive around Fetcham Grove
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by Leatherhead Trinity School and Nursery, near Surrey Society of Model Engineers or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those answers decide this work and our price, so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. During the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Fetcham Grove and where it is
Fetcham Grove is a suburban area in Surrey, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 35 metres. Fetcham Grove lies close to Leatherhead and Fetcham, and is characterized by predominantly flat housing. Fetcham Grove is located approximately 17 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Fetcham Grove has a population of around 2333 residents, who enjoy the area's scenic riverside setting.
AdBlue drains around Fetcham Grove and across Surrey
Hawks Hill and Fetcham are among the towns around Fetcham Grove, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over KT postcodes. Fastest of all: give a KT22 9 postcode for our van.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Wherever it sits — near Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses, on a layby en route to Leatherhead Cricket Club, at home — that is where it gets drained. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Leatherhead Leisure Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Fetcham Grove motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.