Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Grove Park
Keep your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits around Grove Park, is usually what it takes when caught before your engine runs. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels in Chiswick, like those in Grove Park, run on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Grove Park
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 completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Grove Park Road before work, or in the car park at The Bull's Head on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Gunnersbury or the middle of Grove Park, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Mortlake or a forecourt around Grove Park, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- 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 Chiswick.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Grove Park Gardens.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Grove Park?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the JET or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Grove Park.
Where your engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and turn it off. On the M4, under a mile from Grove Park, that means the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Grove Park is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles to Westminster, so say.
Our arrival around Grove Park, and what occurs next
Anywhere your car came to rest, be it outside Grove Park Primary School, beside Jack Beresford or on your own drive, the van travels to it. The answers decide this work and our price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Grove Park
Grove Park is a suburban area in Greater London, situated on the River Thames at a low elevation of around 9 metres. Grove Park lies close to several neighbouring communities, including Gunnersbury, Strand on the Green, and Kew, and is approximately 6.4 miles from Westminster. Grove Park is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, housing a population of around 8822 residents. Grove Park's riverside setting provides a distinctive character to the area.
AdBlue drains round Grove Park, and Greater London beyond
Grove Park is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Strand on the Green and Kew among them, across the W postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a W4 3 postcode to the van.
No need to move the car. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by St Joseph's Catholic Church, or a layby towards The "Western Wilderness". Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St Paul.
For Grove Park people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.