Ruxley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly flushed where your vehicle sits in Ruxley. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels driven round Ruxley and Albany Park carry another fluid as well. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler for every tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ruxley: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Sandy Lane before work, or in the car park at Seven Stars heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Ruxley or out in Foots Cray.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Ruxley forecourt or a driveway over in North Cray, take a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 Albany Park.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Greater London, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Ruxley Corner, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Ruxley?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — BP, Tesco or another — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Ruxley, leave the car where it stands.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit means where to come off when you are on the M20, under 3 miles from Ruxley. About how far did it go? Crossing Ruxley is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles to London, and so say.
What takes place when we arrive around Ruxley
By Hope Community School, near Odd Fellows Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off until you have had the quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it sits. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our technicians start the engine and check that it's running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Ruxley itself
Ruxley is a village in south-east Greater London, situated on the shores of the River Cray and several lakes. Ruxley sits at an elevation of around 40 metres, with its semi-detached housing stock reflecting the area's interwar and post-war development. Ruxley is located near the villages of Foots Cray, Upper Ruxley, and St Pauls Cray, and is around 12 miles from central London.
Ruxley and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Ruxley is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Upper Ruxley and St Pauls Cray among them, across the DA postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DA14 5.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. The drain takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by North Cray Neighbourhood Centre, or a lay-by on the way to Ruxley Wood. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Botolph's Church, Ruxley (remains of), ring and ask instead of assuming.
Ruxley people: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Greater London.