Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Norwood: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Upper Norwood. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Upper Norwood and Crystal Palace carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Upper Norwood
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Ravensdale Gardens, or on the way home in the car park outside The White Hart.
New-to-you vehicles are next, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Norwood New Town or the middle of Upper Norwood: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in West Norwood or a forecourt around Upper Norwood, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Gipsy Hill, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Greater London, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Harold Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upper Norwood?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Shell, Texaco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear if you ask. Your own driveway in Upper Norwood is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Upper Norwood sits under 10 miles from the M23; there, use the first exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Upper Norwood is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Westminster — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Upper Norwood, and what happens next
The van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near Frankie, or by All Saints CofE Primary School. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out until you have heard our price over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. Hence it counts more. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Upper Norwood itself
Upper Norwood is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 6.6 miles from central London and 6.2 miles from Westminster. Upper Norwood sits at an elevation of around 95 metres, overlooking the surrounding urban landscape. Upper Norwood is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which reflects the area's residential nature. Upper Norwood is close to nearby places such as Norwood New Town, Gipsy Hill, and Norbury, forming part of the larger urban community.
AdBlue drains around Upper Norwood and across Greater London
Being a residential suburb, Upper Norwood shares its vans surrounding areas — Gipsy Hill, Norbury — right across SE postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: give a SE19 3 postcode to our van.
No need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Upper Norwood Recreation Ground, a side street near Woodpecker: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Linh Son Temple.
Upper Norwood people: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, wherever in Greater London: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.