AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stoughton: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stoughton. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many current diesels seen round Stoughton and Westborough carry a second fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of cars share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
Stoughton: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Northway, or heading home in the car park outside Cricketers.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the pour begins, no part stops it. Rydeshill or the middle of Stoughton: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Stoughton forecourt or a driveway over in Park Barn, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Guildford? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Surrey, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Galvins Close on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stoughton already?
Short order, then. First: your motor remains off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will usually help to push the car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Stoughton.
Where the engine has been run already, pull over safely then turn it off. Stoughton lies under 10 miles from the M25; on it, take the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Stoughton.
When we get there around Stoughton, what takes place?
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, beside Emmanuel Church or at home, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off until you've heard the price by phone.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out by itself. Hence it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we go, our technicians start it and make sure that it is running correctly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run take 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. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Stoughton and where it is
Stoughton is a suburban area in Surrey, situated approximately 26.7 miles south-west of central London. Stoughton sits at an elevation of around 65 metres, near the neighbouring areas of Rydeshill, Woodbridge Hill, and Bellfields. Stoughton has a population of around 7793 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Stoughton is characterized by its inland setting, with the nearest city being Westminster, about 26.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Stoughton included
Woodbridge Hill and Bellfields are among the places around Stoughton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over GU postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts GU2 9, and the van gets there fastest.
The car does not need to move. Wherever it stands — near Royal British Legion, on a lay-by heading to Stoughton Recreation Ground, at home — that's where it is emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Mary's Catholic Church? By a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
Stoughton motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.