Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Lambeth: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around South Lambeth. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near South Lambeth and Victoria run, with diesel feeding your engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around South Lambeth: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Rita Road, perhaps outside The Griffin Belle on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, keeps on. Whether it happens in Oval or the middle of South Lambeth, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a South Lambeth forecourt or a driveway over in Millbank, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles show what goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Vauxhall, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around Greater London the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Fentiman Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around South Lambeth?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at JET, Shell or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car away if you ask. If you're on your own drive around South Lambeth, leave it where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M4, under 10 miles from South Lambeth, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing South Lambeth is less a job than a run of under 3 miles towards Westminster, so tell us.
Our arrival in South Lambeth, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Wyvil Primary School and Resource Bases for Speech, Language and Communication Needs, and Autism, close to St Anne and All Saints or on your own drive. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we go.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About South Lambeth
South Lambeth is a suburban area in the London borough of Lambeth, situated on the south bank of the River Thames. South Lambeth sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres, close to the riverside and near several notable landmarks. South Lambeth is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located near areas such as Oval, Vauxhall, and Kennington. South Lambeth is a densely populated area with approximately 21,928 residents.
South Lambeth and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, South Lambeth shares its vans nearby places — Vauxhall, Kennington — all the way across SW postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting SW8 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to move. Anywhere it stands — near Calvary Church of God in Christ, in a layby en route to Lavender Garden, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Better.
For South Lambeth people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever around Greater London: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.