Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stroude: Why It Occurs
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Stroude. If you are 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: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Stroude and Thorpe run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. It's in the gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Stroude
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Stroude Road, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Stroude or out in St Anns Heath.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Stroude or a driveway out in Ripley Springs. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Virginia Water, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Surrey that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush by Whitehall Farm Lane at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stroude?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Stroude.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M25 — under a mile out of Stroude — at the first exit. A short hop across Stroude is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Stroude: what happens when our technicians turn up
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by St Ann's Heath Junior School, near Virginia Water Community Library or on your own drive, the van travels to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since the answers decide this work and our quote. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed 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. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before leaving, we start the engine and check that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Stroude itself
Stroude is a small village in Surrey, located inland at an elevation of 19 metres, and is situated near the larger settlements of Virginia Water and St Anns Heath. Stroude has a population of around 577 residents and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Stroude is also close to Thorpe Green and is within commuting distance of London, being approximately 19.6 miles from the city centre.
AdBlue drains in Stroude and across Surrey
As a rural village, Stroude has the same vans as surrounding areas — Virginia Water, Thorpe Green — all the way through GU postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a GU25 4 postcode to our van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Edgell Close Play Area, a side street close to Harvesttime Church: our technicians drain it where it stands. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of British Legion.
Stroude people: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever around Surrey: keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103.