AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Shirley: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Upper Shirley. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels seen about Upper Shirley and Addiscombe carry another liquid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Upper Shirley?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Upper Shirley Road, or outside The Surprise on the way home after work.
New-to-you vehicles are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether in Shirley or right in the centre of Upper Shirley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Upper Shirley forecourt or a drive over in Monks Orchard, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from South Croydon's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Oaks Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm your diesel cap stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Leave out step five altogether.
Upper Shirley: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. Your own driveway around Upper Shirley is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Upper Shirley lies under 10 miles from the M25; there, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Shirley.
Upper Shirley: what takes place when our technicians turn up
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Shirley Windmill, or outside St John's CofE Primary School. The answers settle this work and the quote, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and check that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Upper Shirley and where it is
Upper Shirley is a suburban area in southern Greater London, situated approximately 10 miles from central London. Upper Shirley has a relatively low elevation of around 110 metres and is characterised by detached housing. Upper Shirley is located near other suburban areas such as Shirley and Spring Park, and is close to the nearby town of Addington. Upper Shirley remains a residential community on the outskirts of London.
AdBlue drains in Upper Shirley and across Greater London
Spring Park and Addington are among the towns around Upper Shirley, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over CR postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts CR0 5, and our van gets there quickest.
No need to shift your car. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Saint John the Evangelist, or a layby on the way to Pinewoods. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Shirley Methodist Church Hall.
For Upper Shirley people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.