How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Littleton
Leave your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the vehicle stands around Littleton, is normally what it takes when caught before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads around Littleton and Laleham carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Littleton
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Studios Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Barley Mow.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. Shepperton Green or the middle of Littleton: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Littleton forecourt or a drive out in Littleton Common, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Shepperton? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than 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 in Surrey that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Squire's Bridge Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
Littleton: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or somewhere else. On your own drive in Littleton? Then your car stays where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction means where to come off when you are on the M3, under a mile from Littleton. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Littleton is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Westminster — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Littleton, what happens?
Outside Littleton CofE Infant School, close to Church of St Mary Magdalene or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies set both work and price. No one heads out until you've heard the quote by phone.
Then the tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Littleton and where it is
Littleton is a village in Surrey, situated on the lakeside at an elevation of 13 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Littleton lies close to the nearby places of Shepperton Green, Charlton, and Shepperton, and is approximately 15.9 miles from London. Littleton has a population of around 1190 residents, who live in a quiet lakeside setting. Littleton is also near to the city of Westminster, which is 15.8 miles away.
Littleton and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Littleton has the same vans as surrounding places — Charlton, Shepperton — right across TW postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode that starts TW17 0, and the van gets there quickest.
The car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it stands — near RC Church of John Fisher, on a layby en route to Studios Walk, at home — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Shepperton Youth Centre.
In short, for Littleton people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.