How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Royal Arsenal West
Leave the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Royal Arsenal West, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Royal Arsenal West and Plumstead carry, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Royal Arsenal West?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Duke of Wellington Avenue before work, or in the car park outside SALT Woolwich on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Royal Arsenal West or out in Woolwich.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Royal Arsenal West or a driveway over in Cavendish Square. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Woolwich.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Greater London, 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 Arsenal Way.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Royal Arsenal West: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Harvest Energy, Shell or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Royal Arsenal West.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Royal Arsenal West sits under 10 miles from the M11; on it, use the first junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Royal Arsenal West makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards London — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Royal Arsenal West, what occurs?
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Duke of Wellington, or by Heronsgate Primary School. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set both work and price. During the call itself, you hear the quote — before dispatch.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before we go, we start it and check that it's running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after we get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Royal Arsenal West and where it is
Royal Arsenal West is a suburban area located on the riverside in Greater London, with an elevation of around 9 metres above sea level. Royal Arsenal West sits approximately 8.7 miles from central London and is close to nearby places such as Woolwich and North Woolwich. Royal Arsenal West is predominantly composed of flat housing, accommodating a population of around 15626 residents. Royal Arsenal West is part of the wider London urban area, with West Thamesmead also nearby.
Royal Arsenal West and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Royal Arsenal West is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, North Woolwich and West Thamesmead among them, across the SE postcode area. A postcode starting SE18 6 gets our van to you fastest.
The car remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Royal Carriage Factory South Range Warehouse, a lay-by on the way to Wellington Park, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of Royal Carriage Factory (South Range)? By a border? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
In short, for Royal Arsenal West drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around Greater London: switch it off then phone 0333 366 0103.