Plashet: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Plashet. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels around Plashet and Wallend 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.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap to use. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
Plashet: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Plashet Grove before work, or in the car park at The Overdraft Tavern on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether in Upton Park or right in the centre of Plashet.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Upton or a forecourt in Plashet, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Woodgrange Park, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere across Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Woodhouse Grove.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through its built-in spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Plashet?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump. On your own drive around Plashet? So the vehicle stays where it is.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means where to come off if you're on the M11, under 3 miles from Plashet. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards London, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Plashet.
Plashet: what occurs when our engineers get there
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Lathom Junior School, near Plashet Park Bowling Club or on your own drive. What fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers set both work and quote. Nobody heads out until you have had the price over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Before we go, our technicians start the engine and check that it is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Plashet itself
Plashet is a suburban area in the London Borough of Newham, situated approximately 7.9 miles from central London. Plashet is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, with many homes dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Plashet sits near the communities of Upton Park, East Ham, and Little Ilford, and is located at a relatively low elevation of 11 metres above sea level. Plashet is home to a diverse population of around 28,553 people.
AdBlue drains about Plashet, and Greater London beyond
As a residential suburb, Plashet has the same vans as nearby places — East Ham, Little Ilford — all the way through E postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting E6 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving your car is not necessary. Wherever it stands — near London Sri Mahalakshmi Temple, in a lay-by heading to Plashet Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of London City Christ Temple.
In short, for Plashet people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.