Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Summerstown: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your car sits in Summerstown, is usually what it takes when found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the motor — but many current diesels driven around Summerstown and Tooting carry another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Summerstown?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Summerstown, or outside The Corner Pin on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it occurs in Earlsfield or the middle of Summerstown, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Upper Tooting or a forecourt in Summerstown.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Haydons Road.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Greater London that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Garratt Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using its built-in spout.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Summerstown: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away if you ask. Your own driveway around Summerstown is the place it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. The next junction is the place to come off if you're on the M4, under 10 miles from Summerstown. Distance matters — a quick hop across Summerstown makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Westminster — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Summerstown, and what occurs next
By Smallwood Primary School and Language Unit, near Hindu Centre or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out before you've had our price by phone.
Then that tank is cleared and your system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. Next we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Summerstown, briefly
Summerstown is a suburban area in south London, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 11 metres. Summerstown lies close to the River Wandle and is surrounded by other suburban areas such as Earlsfield, Tooting Graveney, and Tooting Bec. Summerstown is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is home to a population of approximately 10,583 residents. Summerstown is located about 5.7 miles from central London and 5.3 miles from Westminster.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Summerstown included
Summerstown is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Tooting Graveney and Tooting Bec among them, across the SW postcode area. A postcode starting SW17 0 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move your car. Anywhere it sits — near Wimbledon Art Studios, in a layby en route to Garratt Park, at home — that is where it gets cleared. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Cherry Red Records Stadium, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Summerstown people
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Greater London.