Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Kensington: Why It Happens
Stop reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around South Kensington. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — but many current diesels driven round South Kensington and Earls Court carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars 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 usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in South Kensington
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Clareville Street, perhaps outside The Hereford Arms on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of South Kensington or out in Brompton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Chelsea or a forecourt around South Kensington, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Ask 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 West Brompton.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is across Greater London — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Gloucester Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour 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 check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
South Kensington: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Gulf or somewhere else. Your own drive around South Kensington is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M4, under 5 miles from South Kensington, that means the next exit. A short hop across South Kensington is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 3 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in South Kensington
Outside Our Lady of Victories RC Primary School, close to George Borrow or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we go.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About South Kensington
South Kensington is a densely populated suburban area in central London, situated approximately 2.5 miles from the city centre. South Kensington sits near the Thames, at a low elevation of around 14 metres, and is bordered by nearby places such as Brompton and Knightsbridge. South Kensington is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, accommodating a sizable population of around 19,509 residents. South Kensington is also close to Westminster, being only 2.4 miles away from the city.
South Kensington and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
West Brompton and Knightsbridge are among the places around South Kensington, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout SW postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SW7 4.
Your car remains put. Wherever it stands — beside Herbert Beerbohm Tree, in a lay-by heading to Hereford Square Garden, at home — that is where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Field Marshal Allenby? By a border? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
For South Kensington people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere across Greater London.