How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Selhurst
Leave your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Selhurst, catching it before the motor runs usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels around Selhurst and Thornton Heath carry, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. On a lot of cars 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 filled at the pump all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Selhurst
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Owen Close, or on the way home in the car park outside Two Brewers.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: a new motor.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in Broad Green or the middle of Selhurst, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Selhurst forecourt or a driveway over in Addiscombe, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Greater London — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Westbury Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Selhurst already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Selhurst, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then switch off. Selhurst lies under 10 miles from the M23; on it, use the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Selhurst is less work than a trip of under 10 miles to Westminster, and so tell us.
When we turn up in Selhurst, what takes place?
By Broadmead Primary School, near Legacy Youth Zone or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since those replies decide both work and quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Selhurst
Selhurst is a suburban area in south London, situated near the River Effra and close to the neighbouring areas of Broad Green, Woodside, and South Norwood. Selhurst sits at an elevation of around 54 metres, approximately 8.4 miles from central London. Selhurst is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which reflects the typical residential development of the area. Selhurst is home to around 11,970 residents, according to approximate population figures.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Selhurst included
Being a residential suburb, Selhurst has the same vans as nearby areas — Woodside, South Norwood — right through CR postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning CR0 2, and our van arrives fastest.
Your car remains put. Draining happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by #Merky FC HQ, or a layby towards King George's Field. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Selhurst motorists: the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.