Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Plumstead
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Plumstead. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — but many modern diesels seen around Plumstead and Shooters Hill hold a second liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Plumstead?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Kirk Lane before work, or in the car park at The Plum Tree Beer Shop on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Plumstead or out in Plumstead Common.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Plumstead or a driveway out in East Wickham. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around Greater London the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Plumstead Common Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Plumstead?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Harvest Energy or somewhere else. Your own drive around Plumstead is where it stays.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M11 — under 10 miles out of Plumstead — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Plumstead is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles to London, and so say.
Plumstead: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Margaret's Church of England Primary School, close to Saint Michael's Cherubim and Seraphim Church or on your own drive. The answers settle this work and the price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the car gets tested. Before we go, we fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Plumstead and where it is
Plumstead is a suburban area in southeast London, situated approximately 9 miles from central London and 57 metres above sea level. Plumstead is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock and is located near Plumstead Common and the Royal Arsenal West development. Plumstead has a population of around 18,468 residents and is close to the nearby town of Woolwich. Plumstead is also near the River Thames, which has played a significant role in the area's development.
AdBlue drains about Plumstead, and Greater London beyond
As a residential suburb, Plumstead shares its vans nearby areas — Royal Arsenal West, Woolwich — right across SE postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode that starts SE18 2, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a street by 4th Royal Greenwich Scouts, or a lay-by on the way to Plumstead Common. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Glyndon Community Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Plumstead motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Greater London.