--- title: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Lewisham: Explained canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/lewisham-greater-london/ location: Lewisham county: Greater London latitude: 51.457100 longitude: -0.013710 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-28 --- # AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lewisham: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Lewisham. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening. ## Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car Many newer diesels on the roads about Lewisham and Catford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own. Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them. ## AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lewisham: how it takes place Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them. The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Lewisham High Street before work, or in the car park at The Fox & Firkin on the way home. The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a new vehicle. 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. Whether it occurs in Ladywell or the middle of Lewisham, it is the same few seconds. ## Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Lewisham or a driveway over in St Johns. A few seconds, no more. - Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't. - Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one. - A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it. - The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which. - Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Ladywell? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on. ## Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is around Greater London — a routine to follow. - Not in a rush on the side of Longbridge Way, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first. - Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works. - The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle. - Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty. - Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car. Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five. ## Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lewisham already? Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from. At a forecourt — Esso, Tesco or another — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. At home around Lewisham? So the car remains put. When your motor has been run already, stop safely then turn the vehicle off. The next junction means where to leave if you are on the M11, under 10 miles from Lewisham. A short hop across Lewisham is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went. ## Lewisham: what takes place when our technicians turn up Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Mary's Lewisham Church of England Primary School, close to Lewisham United Reformed Church or on your own drive. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers set the work and quote. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving. Then that tank is cleared and your system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly. Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after we arrive. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling. ## About Lewisham Lewisham is a locality in south-east London, situated on the River Ravensbourne at an elevation of around 15 metres. Lewisham is located approximately 6 miles from central London and is close to nearby places such as Ladywell, Hither Green, and Crofton Park. Lewisham has a population of around 6175 people and is predominantly composed of flat housing. Lewisham is a residential area with a mix of old and new buildings, including modern flats and older housing stock. ## AdBlue drains across Greater London, Lewisham included Hither Green and Crofton Park are among the towns near Lewisham, a small village, that the same vans cover, throughout SE postcodes. A postcode starting SE13 6 gets our van to you fastest. Your car doesn't need to move. Draining happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, or a layby on the way to Roseview. Guessing won't help at the back of Ridgeway, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask. ## The short version for Lewisham motorists Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Greater London.