AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penton Hook: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the vehicle sits around Penton Hook, is normally what it takes when caught before your motor runs. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Penton Hook and Thorpe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to 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 a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Penton Hook: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off The Lane before work, or in the car park outside Three Horseshoes, Laleham on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Penton Hook or out in Laleham.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Knowle Green or a forecourt in Penton Hook.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Chertsey? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever in Surrey, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Abbey Place, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to stage five.
Penton Hook: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Asda, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will normally help to push the car clear when you ask. On your own drive around Penton Hook? Then the car stays put.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. The next exit is the place to leave when you are on the M3, under a mile from Penton Hook. About how far did it go? Crossing Penton Hook is less a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Westminster, so tell us.
When our engineers turn up around Penton Hook, what takes place?
Wherever your car came to rest, whether by Laleham CofE VA Primary School, near Closed (temporarily) or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies decide the work and price. No one heads out before you've heard the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Penton Hook
Penton Hook is a small village in Surrey, situated on the banks of the River Thames at a low elevation of around 15 metres. Penton Hook lies within a short distance of London, approximately 17.5 miles from the city centre, and is near the towns of Laleham, Abbey Mead, and Chertsey. Penton Hook has a population of around 665 residents, who mostly live in detached houses. Penton Hook is characterized by its lakeside setting, with the river playing a significant role in the village's geography.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Penton Hook included
Penton Hook is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Abbey Mead and Chertsey among them, across the KT postcode area. Fastest of all: give a KT16 8 postcode for our van.
The car remains where it is. Wherever it stands — beside All Saints Church, in a lay-by heading to Penton Hook Island, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Depth Charge? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Penton Hook people
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Surrey.