Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tyrrells Wood
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out just where your vehicle sits around Tyrrells Wood, is usually what it needs when found before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Tyrrells Wood and Fetcham Grove carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Tyrrells Wood: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Headley Road before work, or in the car park outside The Dukes Head on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Tyrells Wood or the middle of Tyrrells Wood: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Ashtead or a forecourt around Tyrrells Wood, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Leatherhead, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Surrey that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of The Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Tyrrells Wood already?
Brief order, then. First: your engine stays off. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Tyrrells Wood.
Where the motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. Tyrrells Wood lies under a mile from the M25; on it, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Tyrrells Wood.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Tyrrells Wood
By West Ashtead Primary Academy, close to Fortyfoot Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since the answers settle the work and our price. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote by phone.
Then that tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, however long it sits. 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 fired up and is running smoothly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Tyrrells Wood itself
Tyrrells Wood is a small suburban area in Surrey, situated approximately 16.9 miles from London and near the town of Leatherhead. Tyrrells Wood sits in a relatively low-lying area at around 110 metres elevation, characterised by detached housing and a quiet residential atmosphere. Tyrrells Wood is close to nearby places such as Givons Grove and has a small population of around 515 residents.
AdBlue drains around Tyrrells Wood and across Surrey
Tyrrells Wood is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Givons Grove and Leatherhead among them, across the KT postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting KT22 8.
The vehicle stays where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Downside Manor, a lay-by on the way to Beaverbrook Golf Club, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of Beaverbrook, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
The short version for Tyrrells Wood people
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Surrey.