AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Norwood New Town: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Norwood New Town. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Norwood New Town and West Norwood carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Norwood New Town: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Vermont Road before work, or in the car park outside The Sparrowhawk on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor 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. Upper Norwood or the heart of Norwood New Town: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Norwood New Town or a driveway out in Anerley. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a rental or company car — from Gipsy Hill's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Greater London that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Mount Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Norwood New Town: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Shell, Texaco or another — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own drive in Norwood New Town is where it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Norwood New Town lies under 10 miles from the M4; there, take the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Norwood New Town is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles towards Westminster, and so say.
Our arrival in Norwood New Town, and what takes place next
By Rockmount Primary School, near Crystal Palace Food Market or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. The replies determine this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. During the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Norwood New Town itself
Norwood New Town is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 6.3 miles from central London and 5.9 miles from Westminster. Norwood New Town sits at an elevation of around 96 metres, near the neighbourhoods of Upper Norwood, Gipsy Hill, and Crystal Palace. Norwood New Town is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, housing a population of around 13729 residents. Norwood New Town is characterized by its inland setting, with the city of London and its amenities within easy reach.
AdBlue drains around Norwood New Town and across Greater London
Norwood New Town is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Gipsy Hill and Crystal Palace among them, across the SE postcode area. A postcode starting SE19 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Upper Norwood Recreation Ground, a side street close to Margaret Lockwood: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of A L'etage 2.
Norwood New Town motorists: the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Greater London.