AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tooting Bec: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the motor has not run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Tooting Bec. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Tooting Bec and Upper Tooting carry, with diesel for the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tooting Bec: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Tooting High Street, perhaps outside The Castle on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar car.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. Tooting or the middle of Tooting Bec: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Tooting Bec or a driveway over in Furzedown. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- 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 Tooting.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Greater London that is.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by Selkirk Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tooting Bec already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, Shell or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away if asked. If you're on your own drive around Tooting Bec, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. Tooting Bec lies under 10 miles from the M4; there, use the first exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Tooting Bec makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Westminster — so tell us about how far it went.
Tooting Bec: what occurs when our technicians get there
By St Boniface RC Primary School, near Broadway Market or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since those answers decide the work and our quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is drained and your system rinsed 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 is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Tooting Bec, briefly
Tooting Bec is a suburban area in south London, situated near the River Wandle and close to Tooting Bec Common. Tooting Bec has a mix of terraced housing and other residential buildings, and its population is approximately 22230 people. Tooting Bec is located near several other local areas, including Tooting and Tooting Graveney. Tooting Bec sits at an elevation of 19 metres above sea level, relatively close to the centre of London.
AdBlue drains around Tooting Bec and across Greater London
Tooting Bec is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Tooting Graveney and Tooting Bec Common among them, across the SW postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SW17 0.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. Anywhere it stands — beside Tooting Market, on a lay-by en route to Fishponds Playing Fields, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Guessing doesn't help at the back of TK Maxx, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
For Tooting Bec people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Greater London: keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.