Sanderstead: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
All of it turns on one detail: if the engine has started since the AdBlue went in — more than anything else. If it hasn't, keep it that way, whether the car is around Sanderstead itself or out in Purley. Normally that means emptying and properly flushing it on the spot around Sanderstead — so keep your ignition and motor off then phone 0333 366 0103. Pull over the moment it is safe then turn off, if it has already run. Step one stays unchanged, even though the job grows.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever in Greater London it happened.
On a Sanderstead forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
You're at the petrol pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. Perhaps you're at the Shell, perhaps at the Esso, maybe somewhere else in Sanderstead.
In short: no better spot to be to discover it. No pump has drawn it through, and so the AdBlue stays only inside that tank.
Freeing the pump is no reason to run it — and so do not get back in. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking spot, keep the receipt or the bottle, and call us from the forecourt. Emptying it right at the pump is fine if it can't be shifted, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
At home around Sanderstead with AdBlue in the diesel tank
For days the dash had been warning you. Only by the recycling, the empty bottle in your hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd opened on the drive. Homes just off Glebe Close are caught out as much as everywhere else.
The point: zero driving since makes it nearly as good to finding it at the petrol pump. On the bottom of the tank sits where AdBlue stays, since it won't mix with diesel — and a night passing makes no difference.
Next: prevent any early-morning drive by putting your keys in the house, then ring us. Riddlesdown or Sanderstead: whichever your drive sits, that's where it gets drained. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
On the road around Sanderstead with AdBlue in a diesel
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard arrived a short way after the fill. Possibly it was on Purley Downs Road, perhaps on the way out towards Westminster, under 15 miles away.
The upshot: your system has pulled AdBlue in by now. Distance decides how far it goes: filter and lines first, then the high-pressure pump and every injector. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
What to do: pull over where it's safe and switch off. Services farther on are too far: on the M23, under 5 miles out of Sanderstead, use the first junction. No trial restarts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Ring us and say how far you travelled.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You've only had the vehicle a week. Your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere different, and so nothing told you the AdBlue cap was right beside the diesel. Anywhere you happen to be in Greater London, every motorist can slip up.
Put simply: an extra stage on top of the cases above, and those depend on whether it's run. Plenty of rental and company agreements require the owner's approval before work.
Next: phone the rental company or the fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before we arrive is quicker. Waiting for a reply in the car park at Riddlesdown, or beside Sanderstead United Reformed Church? Keep the engine off throughout.
Sanderstead: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
"I think so" is often as honest as it gets. A slight ammonia-like smell lingers near the filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is hard to recall. The gates of Gresham Primary School in a rush, perhaps, or a friend's drive over in Hamsey Green.
The point: your motor is not harmed by some AdBlue spilled around the outside. In your diesel tank, however, AdBlue harms it. If there is AdBlue in the tank, turning on the vehicle would pull it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Your move: behave as if it did, and don't start the engine. Checking a tank that proves clean beats emptying one once it's been run — so ring and tell us what you saw.
Sanderstead: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Each situation gets the same opening to the work. We come to your car, whether it's at a forecourt, a driveway, the car park at The Sir Julian Huxley or a side street close to Sanderstead Library, and ask three things: what was put in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run. Replies set the work; the price follows by phone while nobody has set off yet.
AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some metals in fuel systems, so it does not rinse out on its own; that's why a full flush, after the drain, counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter has been flushed or replaced, and your car is then tested. Never started? In that case roughly half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Lastly, we fire it up. Our check that it runs correctly on clean diesel comes before our engineers go. When it's caught quickly, the car very rarely has lasting damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. For your insurer: an engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money in advance. Check your insurance while we're en route: cover for misfuelling is included in plenty of policies.
About Sanderstead and where it is
Sanderstead is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 11.9 miles from central London and 141 metres above sea level. Sanderstead is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near other suburban areas such as Riddlesdown and Selsdon. Sanderstead has a population of around 3783 residents and is close to the town of South Croydon.
Sanderstead and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Over CR postcodes, the teams serving Sanderstead — a residential suburb — work nearby places as well, Selsdon and South Croydon included. Telling us a CR2 9 postcode finds you quickest of all.
Whether the car is on a lay-by on the way to Sanderstead Recreation Ground or in a car park in the middle of Sanderstead, it doesn't need to move. The van drains it where it stands. If you're somewhere hard to describe, near Sanderstead Cricket and Hockey Club or close to a boundary, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Your situation, summed up
Still unrun? Leave the car that way and ring. Whichever line applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Greater London and in Sanderstead — once you pull over, switch off and phone, if it's run.