Send Marsh: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car sits around Send Marsh, is usually what it needs if caught before your motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — but many modern diesels seen about Send Marsh and Ripley hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. 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. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Send Marsh: how it occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Polesden Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Saddlers Arms on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a strange vehicle.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Burntcommon or the middle of Send Marsh, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Send Marsh or a driveway over in Cartbridge. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Clandon, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are in Surrey — a routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Send Marsh Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Send Marsh?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive in Send Marsh, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. On the M25, under 5 miles from Send Marsh, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Send Marsh is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Westminster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Send Marsh: what happens when our technicians get there
By Send CofE Primary School, close to Ripley Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, since those replies settle the work and the price. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians start the engine and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Send Marsh itself
Send Marsh is a small village in Surrey, situated on the lakeside at an elevation of 28 metres. Send Marsh sits near the neighbouring villages of Burntcommon and Send, with Grove Heath also nearby. Send Marsh has a population of around 598 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Send Marsh is located approximately 22 miles from London, with Westminster being the nearest city.
AdBlue drains in Send Marsh and across Surrey
Send Marsh is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Grove Heath and Send among them, across the GU postcode area. Quickest of all: give a GU23 6 postcode for our van.
No need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Send Marsh Green, a side street near Send and Ripley History Society Museum: our technicians drain it where it is. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Mary's Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Send Marsh drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Surrey.