Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Cross: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around New Cross. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels in Surrey Quays, as well as New Cross, run on two fluids; your engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for every tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around New Cross?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Goodwood Road before work, or in the car park outside The Rose heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it happens in New Cross Gate or the middle of New Cross, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around New Cross or a drive over in Tavern Quay. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show what belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — from New Cross Gate's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is in Greater London — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Batavia Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in New Cross already?
Don't start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Shell or somewhere else. At home around New Cross? So the car stays where it is.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. New Cross sits under 10 miles from the M11; on it, use the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards London, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across New Cross.
Our arrival in New Cross, and what happens next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Childeric Primary School, near Woolworths V2 Rocket Attack or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About New Cross and where it is
New Cross is a suburban area in south-east London, situated approximately 4.4 miles from the city centre. New Cross is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located near other local areas such as New Cross Gate, Deptford, and St Johns. New Cross has a population of around 17621 people and is set in a low-lying area with an elevation of 11 metres. New Cross is close to the River Thames and is part of the larger London urban landscape.
New Cross and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, New Cross has the same vans as surrounding places — Deptford, St Johns — all the way across SE postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode beginning SE14 6, and the van arrives quickest.
Your car stays where it is. Wherever it stands — near New Cross Learning Centre, in a lay-by en route to Fordham Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of Battle of Lewisham Plaque? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
In short, for New Cross motorists
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Greater London.