Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Green: Why It Occurs
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Lower Green. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads about Lower Green and Rydens carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Lower Green
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Esher Green before work, or in the car park outside The Wheatsheaf on the Green on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Lower Green or out in Esher.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Lower Green forecourt or a driveway out in West End, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Esher's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Surrey that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Lower Green Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Green?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive around Lower Green? So the vehicle remains put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is where to leave when you are on the M3, under 5 miles from Lower Green. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lower Green.
Lower Green: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Outside Cranmere Primary School, near Sandown Park Golf Centre or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Those replies settle this work and our quote, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Before leaving, we start the car and make sure that it's running correctly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Lower Green and where it is
Lower Green is a suburban area in Surrey, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 16 metres, and is located near Esher, Field Common, and Weston Green. Lower Green has a population of approximately 1546 residents and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Lower Green is close to Westminster, being around 13.5 miles away, and is also about 13.7 miles from London. Lower Green benefits from its riverside setting, which provides scenic views and outdoor recreational opportunities.
AdBlue drains around Lower Green, and Surrey beyond
Throughout KT postcodes, our vans covering Lower Green — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Weston Green and Field Common among them. Quickest of all: quote a KT10 8 postcode for our van.
No need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to the green space at the edge of the village, a side street close to Daytona Sandown Park: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Guessing won't help behind Skywalk Adventure, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Lower Green motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Surrey.