Hook Heath: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Hook Heath. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Hook Heath and Smarts Heath run, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Hook Heath?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
On a drive off White Pillars before work, or in the car park at The Rowbarge on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you cars come next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's a few seconds, whether in St Johns or right in the heart of Hook Heath.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Westfield or a forecourt around Hook Heath, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Worplesdon? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are across Surrey — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Holly Bank Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hook Heath?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — BP, Morrisons or another — the staff will usually help push the car away, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Hook Heath, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. Hook Heath lies under 5 miles from the M3; on it, take the next junction. A short hop across Hook Heath is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Hook Heath, and what takes place next
By Barnsbury Primary School and Nursery, close to Mayford Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you have had our quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. The motor is started next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before we go.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Hook Heath
Hook Heath is a suburban area in Surrey, situated near several lakes and surrounded by other residential neighbourhoods such as St Johns and Fishers Hill. Hook Heath sits at an elevation of around 65 metres, with a mix of housing types but predominantly detached homes. Hook Heath is located near the village of Mayford and is about 24 miles from London. Hook Heath has a population of approximately 1718 residents.
AdBlue drains around Hook Heath and across Surrey
Throughout GU postcodes, our vans covering Hook Heath — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Mayford and Fishers Hill among them. A postcode starting GU22 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Woking Golf Club, a side street close to Emmanuel Church: our engineers drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind St John's Church, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Hook Heath people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Surrey.