Lightwater: 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 engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Around Lightwater, catching it before the motor turns normally leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — yet many newer diesels seen round Lightwater and Donkey Town hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Lightwater?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Guildford Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Red Lion.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have 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 once it has started. Whether it happens in New England or the middle of Lightwater, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Lightwater forecourt or a driveway over in Bagshot, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from Bagshot's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Surrey that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Christie Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Lightwater: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the engine remains off. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Lightwater, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit is the place to come off if you're on the M3, under a mile from Lightwater. About how far did it go? Hopping across Lightwater is less a job than a trip of under 50 miles towards Westminster, so say.
When our technicians turn up around Lightwater, what occurs?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Lightwater Village Infant School and Nursery, close to War Memorial or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out before you've had our quote over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians leave.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Lightwater itself
Lightwater is a village in Surrey, situated near the River Blackwater and close to the heathlands of Bagshot Heath and Windlesham. Lightwater sits at an elevation of 56 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's relatively affluent character. Lightwater is located near the M3 motorway, providing easy access to London, which is approximately 25 miles away. Lightwater has a population of around 2428 people, with nearby areas including New England.
AdBlue drains around Lightwater, and Surrey beyond
As a village, Lightwater has the same vans as surrounding areas — Bagshot Heath, Windlesham — all the way across GU postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting GU18 5.
Moving the car isn't necessary. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near All Saints, or a layby on the way to The Folly. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Arboretum Obelisk, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Lightwater people
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Surrey.