Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rush Green: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Rush Green. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Rush Green and Chadwell Heath run, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Rush Green: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Rush Green Road, perhaps outside The Havering Well on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, whether out in Romford or bang in the centre of Rush Green.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Gidea Park or a forecourt around Rush Green, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Romford? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Greater London the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Dagenham Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Rush Green?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains off. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Coopers Arms Service Station, Tesco or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear when asked. Your own driveway in Rush Green is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Rush Green lies under 5 miles from the M25; on it, use the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards London, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Rush Green.
Our arrival in Rush Green, and what happens next
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Rush Green Primary School, near Rush Green Library or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off before you have heard our price by phone.
Then your tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts 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. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and make sure that it's running smoothly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Rush Green
Rush Green is a suburban area in east London, situated near the River Thames at an elevation of around 14 metres. Rush Green lies approximately 13 miles from central London and is close to nearby places such as Romford, Becontree Heath, and Elm Park. Rush Green has a population of around 9191 people and is predominantly composed of flat housing.
AdBlue drains about Rush Green, and Greater London beyond
Rush Green is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Becontree Heath and Elm Park among them, across the RM postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RM7 0.
Moving your car is not necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by St Augustine of Canterbury Church, or a layby on the way to Oldchurch Park. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Rush Green Community Centre.
In short, for Rush Green motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Greater London: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.