Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Stifford
Stop reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and fully flushed where your car is around South Stifford. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the engine — but plenty of current diesels driven round South Stifford and North Stifford hold another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler on every tank. 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. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around South Stifford
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Mayflower Road before work, or in the car park at Old Shant on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It's a few seconds, be it in Chafford Hundred or bang in the heart of South Stifford.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a South Stifford forecourt or a drive over in Swanscombe, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Grays.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Essex — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lancaster Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
South Stifford: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the Costco, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in South Stifford.
Where the engine has run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch the car off. Leave the M25 — under 3 miles out of South Stifford — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across South Stifford is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles to London, so tell us.
Our arrival around South Stifford, and what happens next
Our van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Belmont Hall, or outside Harris Primary Academy Mayflower. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the answers decide this work and our quote. Nobody heads out before you have had the quote over the phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, however long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. Next our technicians start the engine and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About South Stifford, for a moment
South Stifford is a village in Essex, situated on the lakeside at a low elevation of around 16 metres. South Stifford lies within commuting distance of London, approximately 17 miles from the city centre, and is near other settlements such as Chafford Hundred and Grays. South Stifford has a population of around 4101 people, predominantly living in terraced housing.
South Stifford and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout RM postcodes, our teams covering South Stifford — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Grays and West Thurrock included. Quickest of all: give a RM16 6 postcode to the van.
The vehicle remains put. Wherever it stands — near Thameside Sea Scouts, on a layby en route to Chafford Hundred Park, at home — that is where it is drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Heron Point, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for South Stifford people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Essex.