AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Wrythe: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in The Wrythe. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Carshalton, like those in The Wrythe, carry on two fluids; your motor takes only the diesel. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in The Wrythe
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Green Wrythe Lane, or heading home in the car park outside The Railway Tavern.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Hackbridge or the middle of The Wrythe, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Benhilton or a forecourt around The Wrythe.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors mark what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook shows which it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Carshalton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere around Greater London, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Almond Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave the 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, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in The Wrythe?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around The Wrythe.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the M23, under 10 miles from The Wrythe. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across The Wrythe is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Westminster, so tell us.
What occurs when our technicians get there around The Wrythe
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Muschamp Primary School and Language Opportunity Base, near The Salvation Army - Carshalton or on your own drive. The replies settle this work and our quote, so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't 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. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About The Wrythe
The Wrythe is a suburban area in south London, situated near the River Wandle and close to several local centres, including Hackbridge and Beddington Corner. The Wrythe has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes, and its riverside setting gives it a distinctive edge. The Wrythe is located about 9 miles from central London, with Westminster just under 9 miles away. The Wrythe sits at a relatively low elevation of around 32 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains around The Wrythe and across Greater London
Over SM postcodes, our teams that cover The Wrythe — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, St Helier and Beddington Corner among them. A postcode starting SM5 2 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Wherever it sits — near Riverside Community Centre, in a lay-by en route to Limes Green, at home — that's where it is drained. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Wrythe War Memorial.
In short, for The Wrythe drivers
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around Greater London.