AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lesnes Abbey: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Keep your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Lesnes Abbey, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven about Lesnes Abbey and Upper Belvedere carry another liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. 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. It is in that gap that the mistake happens.
Lesnes Abbey: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Hurst Place before work, or in the car park at The Abbey Arms on the way home.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Bostall Heath or the heart of Lesnes Abbey: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Lessness Heath or a forecourt in Lesnes Abbey, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in which filler just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Abbey Wood, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Greater London that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Harvel Crescent, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lesnes Abbey?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. Your own drive around Lesnes Abbey is the place it should stay.
Where the motor has run already, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. The next exit is where to leave when you are on the M25, under 10 miles from Lesnes Abbey. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards London, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lesnes Abbey.
When our engineers get there around Lesnes Abbey, what happens?
By Bedonwell Infant and Nursery School, close to Owl or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the replies settle the work and our quote. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that our engineers start the engine and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Lesnes Abbey itself
Lesnes Abbey is a suburban area in southeast London, situated approximately 11 miles from central London and near the open spaces of Bostall Heath and Bostall Woods. Lesnes Abbey sits at an elevation of around 67 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Lesnes Abbey is close to West Heath and other local neighbourhoods, forming part of the wider London urban area. Lesnes Abbey has a population of around 4204 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Lesnes Abbey and across Greater London
Bostall Woods and West Heath are among the towns around Lesnes Abbey, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over SE postcodes. A postcode starting SE2 0 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Data Tree, a lay-by on the way to Monk's Garden, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of Lady of the Woods? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
In short, for Lesnes Abbey motorists
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Greater London.