Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Woking: Why It Happens
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Old Woking, is usually all it takes if found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Old Woking and Send carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Old Woking: how it takes place
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off St Peters Road before work, or in the car park at Crown & Anchor on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Old Woking or out in Cartbridge.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Old Woking or a drive out in Westfield. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Woking's car park, say — not when the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Surrey, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Old Woking already?
Short list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Texaco or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Old Woking is the place it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Old Woking lies under 5 miles from the M25; there, use the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Old Woking.
Our arrival around Old Woking, and what takes place next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Kingfield Primary School, close to St. Peter's Church, Old Woking or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. After your filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Old Woking and where it is
Old Woking is a suburban area in Surrey, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 28 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Old Woking lies approximately 22.7 miles from London and is close to nearby places such as Cartbridge and Kingfield. Old Woking has a population of around 3742 residents and is part of the wider urban area surrounding Westminster. Old Woking's location near the river has influenced its development over time.
Old Woking and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Old Woking is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Kingfield and Hockering Estate among them, across the GU postcode area. Fastest of all: give a GU22 9 postcode for the van.
The car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Jubilee Garden of Remembrance, a side street close to The New Life Church: our technicians drain it where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Lancaster Hall? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Old Woking people: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.