AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Frimley: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Frimley. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels in Frimley Ridge, as well as Frimley, run on two liquids; the motor takes only your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Frimley: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Grove Cross Road before work, or in the car park at White Hart on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Frimley or out in Farnborough Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Frimley or a driveway over in Farnborough Street. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with 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 the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in Surrey the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Church Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Frimley?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or somewhere else. At home around Frimley? Then your car remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means where to come off when you're on the M3, under a mile from Frimley. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Frimley.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Frimley
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Peter's, or by Lakeside Nursery & Primary Academy. The replies decide this work and our price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your car. Before leaving, our technicians start it and check that it is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Frimley, for a moment
Frimley is a town situated in the north-west of Surrey, on the banks of the River Blackwater and the Basingstoke Canal. Frimley sits at an elevation of around 71 metres, with a mix of residential and green spaces. Frimley is located near several smaller communities, including Farnborough Green and Frimley Green, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Frimley is also within commuting distance of London, being approximately 29.5 miles from the city centre.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Frimley included
As a riverside town, Frimley shares its vans nearby areas — Frimley Green, Hawley Lane — right through GU postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting GU16 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Brethern's Meeting Room (place of worship), or a layby towards Memorial Garden. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Our Lady Queen of Heaven, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Frimley people
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.