AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Belvedere: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Lower Belvedere, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many newer diesels driven about Lower Belvedere and Northumberland Heath carry another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
There is a filler for every tank. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Belvedere: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Picardy Street, or heading home in the car park outside The Leather Bottle.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lower Belvedere or out in Belvedere.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Lesnes Abbey or a forecourt around Lower Belvedere, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Belvedere's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Dylan Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lower Belvedere already?
Short order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — BP, another forecourt nearby or another — the attendants will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Lower Belvedere, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M25 — under 5 miles out of Lower Belvedere — at the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Lower Belvedere is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards London — so say roughly how far it went.
Lower Belvedere: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether outside Belvedere Junior School, beside St Augustine’s Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set both work and quote. No one sets off until you have heard the price by phone.
Then that tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears away unaided, however long it is left. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Lower Belvedere itself
Lower Belvedere is a suburban area in southeast London, situated near the Thames estuary at an elevation of around 2 metres. Lower Belvedere is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located close to nearby places such as Belvedere and Lessness Heath. Lower Belvedere is part of the larger London urban area, with the city centre approximately 12 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Lower Belvedere included
Lower Belvedere is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Lessness Heath and Upper Belvedere among them, across the DA postcode area. A postcode starting DA17 5 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays put. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near All Saints, or a layby towards Woodland Way. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Upper Belvedere Community Library, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Lower Belvedere drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.