Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Risley Close: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Risley Close, finding it before your engine runs normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Here before the event? Then the rest explains how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Risley Close and Lower Morden carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Risley Close
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Central Road, or at Ganley's Irish Bar on the way home after work.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it in Morden Park or right in the heart of Risley Close.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Risley Close forecourt or a driveway out in St Helier, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show what belongs in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at St Helier, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Greater London, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Alexandra Square.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Risley Close already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Esso, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. At home in Risley Close? Then the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M4, under 10 miles from Risley Close, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Risley Close makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Westminster — so say about how far it went.
What happens when we turn up around Risley Close
Outside Abbotsbury Primary School, near 8th Morden Scout Group or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Risley Close, for a moment
Risley Close is a locality in southwest London, situated near the River Wandle and close to Morden Park. Risley Close has a mix of terraced housing and is located about 8.5 miles from central London. Risley Close is near the neighbouring areas of Morden and Rosehill, and its riverside setting is a notable feature of the locality. Risley Close sits at an elevation of around 31 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Risley Close included
Morden and Rosehill are among the towns around Risley Close, a small village, that the same vans cover, throughout SM postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a SM4 5 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to move. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a road near Baitul Futuh Mosque, or a layby on the way to Morden Recreation Ground. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Lawrence, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Risley Close drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.