Honor Oak: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
Has the engine run since the AdBlue was put in? This single question settles nearly everything else from here. Not run yet? Then leave the car like that, wherever your car sits — Honor Oak or East Dulwich. Ring 0333 366 0103 with your ignition and motor both off. In Honor Oak, that is generally drained and cleaned on the spot. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The job is bigger, yet the first stage is the same.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever across Greater London it happened.
On a Honor Oak forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Just now, bottle yet in your hand, it dawns on you that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. Be it Esso, BP or somewhere else in Honor Oak, the case is identical.
Put simply: there is no better spot exists to discover it. The AdBlue is in your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Your move: keep out of the car, however much the queue needs clearing. A few jobs: a push into a space with the staff helping, the receipt saved, and a ring to us from where you stand. If it can't be shifted, it can be emptied at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt.
Honor Oak, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Days had gone by with the warning light on. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Houses just off Hengrave Road are caught out as often as everywhere else.
In short: if your car has not moved since, it's almost as good as spotting it at the forecourt. At the bottom of the tank sits where AdBlue stays, because it will not blend with diesel — and a night passing changes no difference.
Put the keys in the house tonight — or someone might drive it away at breakfast — and call us. Honor Oak Park or Honor Oak: whichever your driveway sits, that's where it gets drained. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
On the road around Honor Oak with AdBlue in a diesel
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the motor began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Forest Hill Road, perhaps, or the route towards Westminster — a trip of under 5 miles.
What it means: your fuel system has sucked the AdBlue in. The high-pressure pump and each injector get it too on a bigger run, once the filter and lines have it. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Do this: pull up anywhere sensible, then switch your engine off. Services further along can wait: on the M4, under 15 miles out of Honor Oak, take the next junction. Don't restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call, and say what distance your car went.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
It's a motor you have had for a week. Your own car either does without AdBlue or puts it elsewhere, so no one warned you the AdBlue cap was right next to your diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere around Greater London.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it's run, with one more step. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
Sorting it before we turn up is faster, so phone the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. If you are stuck in the car park at Honor Oak Park, or by Saint Augustine's Church, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
Honor Oak: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Sometimes the fair answer is "I think so". The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia round your filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. It might have been on a friend's drive in Brockley, or in a rush outside Fairlawn Primary School at the school run.
The upshot: the motor isn't hurt by some AdBlue spilled around the outside. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different story. You can't tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so would suck in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Take it that it got in, and don't turn your key. Call us and describe what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Honor Oak: what each AdBlue drain has in common
The job begins the same way, whatever the case. Filling station, drive, Watson's General Telegraph's car park or a street beside Club House — the van comes to your vehicle, and three questions follow: what liquid, what amount, and whether it ran. Those answers decide the work, and you get the price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying that tank comes first, then a full flush — more important with urea than after petrol, because crystals and corrosion won't clear by themselves, however long it sits. Last come the fuel filter, flushed or renewed as needed; fresh diesel; and a test of your vehicle. Most unrun vehicles are a half-hour visit from the moment we get there.
Lastly, our engineers start the car. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our technicians confirm it is running properly, and then we go. Our technicians do the whole job where the car is, and permanent damage is very rare when it has been caught quickly. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, no money in advance. Dig out your insurance before we're en route: misfuelling cover comes built into plenty of policies.
About Honor Oak
Honor Oak is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 5.2 miles from central London and 4.8 miles from Westminster. Honor Oak sits at an elevation of around 72 metres, with nearby open spaces including Honor Oak Park. Honor Oak is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban setting. Honor Oak is close to other local areas such as Forest Hill and Nunhead, with which it shares some community facilities.
AdBlue drains around Honor Oak, and across Greater London too
As a residential suburb, Honor Oak has the same vans as the nearby places — Nunhead, Forest Hill — all the way across SE postcodes. Fastest of all: a SE23 3 postcode for where you stand.
No moving is required, whether parked in the centre of Honor Oak or in a layby heading to One Tree Hill, so keep it where it is. The drain happens right there. Awkward to explain? By Camberwell New Cemetery Chapel or a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
In one line: your scenario
Where it hasn't run, ring then keep it off. Started already? Pull over, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whatever it is, in Honor Oak and Greater London, on 0333 366 0103.