North Southwark: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around North Southwark, finding it before the engine turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of modern diesels seen around North Southwark and Blackfriars carry another liquid too. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
North Southwark: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Union Street, or on the way home in the car park outside Lord Nelson.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Southwark or the heart of North Southwark: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in North Southwark or a driveway over in Elephant and Castle. Seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — at London Waterloo East's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever across Greater London, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Nelson Square, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in North Southwark?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Texaco, Shell or any forecourt will normally help to push your car away when you ask. If you are on your own drive around North Southwark, leave the vehicle where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M1, under 10 miles from North Southwark, that means the next exit. A short hop across North Southwark is a smaller job than a run towards London, under a mile away, and so tell us about how far it went.
North Southwark: what happens when our engineers turn up
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it outside Friars Primary Foundation School, near Union Theatre or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the answers decide this work and the price. On the call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About North Southwark itself
North Southwark is a suburban area located on the southern bank of the River Thames in London, with a mix of old and new buildings, including a high proportion of flats. North Southwark sits at a low elevation of around 9 metres above sea level, close to the city centre and nearby areas like Southwark and Bankside. North Southwark is part of the larger Southwark district, which has undergone significant regeneration in recent years. North Southwark is home to a diverse population of around 16,000 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly flats.
North Southwark and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, North Southwark shares its vans surrounding places — Bankside, The Borough — right across SE postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SE1 0.
Your car stays put. Wherever it sits — beside Cervantes Theatre, on a layby heading to Arch 21, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of Dog and a pot? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
For North Southwark motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Greater London.