AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Malden: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Old Malden. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels in Tolworth, like those in Old Malden, carry on two fluids; the motor takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the error happens.
Old Malden: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off South Lane before work, or in the car park outside Woodies Freehouse on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. Motspur Park or the middle of Old Malden: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Berrylands or a forecourt in Old Malden.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark which belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at Malden Manor's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Greater London, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Sheephouse Way 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.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Old Malden?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or anywhere else. Your own drive around Old Malden is where it should stay.
When the engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. Old Malden sits under 10 miles from the M25; on it, take the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Old Malden.
When our engineers get there around Old Malden, what takes place?
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by Malden Manor Primary and Nursery School, near Shiraz Mirza Trust Manor Park Hall or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies settle the work and our price. Nobody heads out until you've had the price over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Next we start it and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Old Malden, briefly
Old Malden is a suburban area in southwest London, situated on the riverside near the confluence of the River Thames and the Hogsmill River. Old Malden lies approximately 10 miles from central London and is close to neighbouring areas such as Motspur Park and Worcester Park. Old Malden has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent in the area. Old Malden is also near to New Malden, with which it shares some local amenities.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Old Malden included
Throughout KT postcodes, our vans that cover Old Malden — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, New Malden and Worcester Park among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting KT3 5.
The car doesn't need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street near St John The Baptist, a lay-by on the way to Plough Green, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of New Malden Sports Club, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Old Malden motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Greater London.