South Woodford: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly purged where the car is around South Woodford. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Woodford, as well as South Woodford, run on two liquids; the engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
South Woodford: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off The Shrubberies, or heading home in the car park outside Slug and Lettuce.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, be it in Woodford Green or bang in the heart of South Woodford.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Walthamstow Forest or a forecourt around South Woodford.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — at Wood Street's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever around Greater London, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of George Lane Roundabout.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
South Woodford: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Gulf or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in South Woodford.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. South Woodford sits under a mile from the M11; there, use the next exit. A short hop across South Woodford is a smaller job than a run towards London, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers get there around South Woodford, what occurs?
Outside Oakdale Infants' School, near Galleria or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers determine this work and our price, so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
Then that tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About South Woodford itself
South Woodford is a suburban area in northeast London, situated approximately 8.9 miles from central London and 7.5 miles from the city centre. South Woodford sits at an elevation of around 38 metres, near the neighbouring areas of Woodford Green, Snaresbrook, and Wanstead. South Woodford has a population of around 12,858 people, predominantly residing in flats. South Woodford is characterized by its inland setting, with a mix of residential and commercial areas.
AdBlue drains around South Woodford and across Greater London
As a residential suburb, South Woodford has the same vans as nearby places — Snaresbrook, Wanstead — right across E postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode that starts E18 1, and our van arrives quickest.
There's no need to move the car. Anywhere it stands — beside Odeon South Woodford, in a layby en route to Elmhurst Gardens, at home — that's where it is drained. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Qurani Murkuz, ring and ask instead of guessing.
South Woodford people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Greater London.