AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Barnes: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor has not run, it's drained and thoroughly purged where your car is around West Barnes. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains how it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around West Barnes and Cottenham Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
West Barnes: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Cavendish Avenue before work, or in the car park outside The Earl Beatty on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Raynes Park or right in the heart of West Barnes.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Bushey Mead or a forecourt in West Barnes.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Motspur Park, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Greater London, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Belmont Avenue.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
West Barnes: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Tesco or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive around West Barnes, leave the car where it is.
When your engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. The next junction is where to leave if you're on the M4, under 10 miles from West Barnes. A short hop across West Barnes is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when we get there around West Barnes
Outside Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, close to The Lighthouse - New Malden Evangelical Free Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because the answers settle the work and the quote. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. 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 fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and confirm that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About West Barnes, for a moment
West Barnes is a suburban area in southwest London, situated near the River Thames at an elevation of around 17 metres. West Barnes lies close to several neighbouring communities, including Raynes Park, Motspur Park, and New Malden, and is approximately 8.8 miles from central London. West Barnes is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the typical residential architecture of the region. West Barnes has a population of around 8984 people, according to recent estimates.
West Barnes and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Over KT postcodes, the vans covering West Barnes — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, New Malden and Motspur Park included. Fastest of all: give a KT3 4 postcode to the van.
Moving your car is not needed. Wherever it stands — near Lighthouse Community Hall, on a layby heading to Raynes Park Residents LTC, at home — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Holy Cross.
The short version for West Barnes people
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever in Greater London: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.