Maze Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands around Maze Hill, is normally all it takes when found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many modern diesels driven round Maze Hill and Blackheath hold another liquid too. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in the gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Maze Hill?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Maze Hill before work, or in the car park outside The Plume of Feathers on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing halts it. Greenwich or the middle of Maze Hill: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Maze Hill forecourt or a drive out in Isle of Dogs, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across Greater London the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Restell Close.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Maze Hill?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at BP, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear if asked. If you're on your own driveway around Maze Hill, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit means the place to come off if you are on the M11, under 10 miles from Maze Hill. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Maze Hill is less work than a run of under 5 miles to London, so tell us.
Maze Hill: what occurs when our technicians get there
By Meridian Primary School, near Olaudah Equiano or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set both work and price. No one heads out until you've heard the quote over the phone.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Maze Hill, briefly
Maze Hill is a suburban area in south-east London, situated approximately 5.9 miles from central London. Maze Hill sits at an elevation of around 31 metres, near the towns of Greenwich and Blackheath. Maze Hill is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, reflecting the typical residential character of many London suburbs. Maze Hill is close to several local amenities and transport links, including those serving nearby Westcombe Park and Blackheath Royal Standard.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Maze Hill included
Throughout SE postcodes, our vans covering Maze Hill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Blackheath Royal Standard and Westcombe Park among them. Fastest of all: quote a SE10 8 postcode to our van.
There's no need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Westcombe Woodlands, a side street near Sir John Vanbrugh: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. Assuming doesn't help behind Site of Roman Temple, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Maze Hill people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.