Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Kingswood
Keep the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Lower Kingswood, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds the engine — but many current diesels driven about Lower Kingswood and Mugswell carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in that gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Lower Kingswood
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Buckland Road, or at The Sportsman on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a strange motor.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and after the pour starts, no part stops it. Whether it happens in Margery or the middle of Lower Kingswood, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Kingswood Warren or a forecourt around Lower Kingswood, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Kingswood? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not 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 across Surrey that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Smithy Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Lower Kingswood?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at BP, Texaco or another forecourt will normally help pushing the vehicle clear when asked. On your own drive around Lower Kingswood? So your car remains put.
Already started? Stop when it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M25 — under a mile out of Lower Kingswood — at the first exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Lower Kingswood is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Westminster — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Lower Kingswood, and what occurs next
By Kingswood Primary School, near The Wisdom Of God or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle the work and our price. On the call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and check that it's running correctly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Lower Kingswood, for a moment
Lower Kingswood is a village in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 182 metres, and is located approximately 16.8 miles from London. Lower Kingswood has a population of around 2260 residents and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Lower Kingswood is near several other small places, including Margery, Mogador, and Hogden Bottom, and is within commuting distance of Westminster, which is about 16.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Lower Kingswood included
Being a rural village, Lower Kingswood has the same vans as surrounding places — Mogador, Hogden Bottom — right through KT postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting KT20 7 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains put. Anywhere it stands — beside Kingswood Village Hall, in a layby en route to Grub Wood, at home — that's where it is emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Lower Kingswood Evangelical Free Church? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Lower Kingswood motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever in Surrey: switch it off and ring 0333 366 0103.