How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tadworth
Leave your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the car stands around Tadworth, is usually all it needs if caught before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Tadworth and Burgh Heath run, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. 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. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Tadworth?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Cross Road, or outside The Grumpy Mole on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a new motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. Walton on the Hill or the heart of Tadworth: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Tadworth or a driveway out in Great Burgh. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Surrey the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not rushed by Lywood Close at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Tadworth?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone runs your pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive in Tadworth is where it stays.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Tadworth sits under 3 miles from the M25; there, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Tadworth is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles towards Westminster, so tell us.
When our technicians arrive in Tadworth, what takes place?
Wherever your car has stopped, whether outside Tadworth Primary School, near St John The Evangelist or at home, the van comes to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the answers settle this work and our price. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Tadworth and where it is
Tadworth is a village in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 174 metres, approximately 15.6 miles from London. Tadworth lies near the North Downs, close to neighbouring villages such as Walton on the Hill and Kingswood. Tadworth has a population of around 2092 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Tadworth is also near Kingswood Warren, a wooded area with scenic views.
AdBlue drains in Tadworth and across Surrey
Being a rural village, Tadworth has the same vans as surrounding areas — Kingswood, Kingswood Warren — right through KT postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting KT20 5 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift your car. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a road near Tadworth Church Hall, or a layby towards Jubilee Woodland. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Church of the Good Shepherd, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Tadworth motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Surrey, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.