Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Norwood: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your car stands around West Norwood, is normally all it needs if caught before your motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around West Norwood and Tulse Hill carry, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in West Norwood: how it occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Gipsy Road Gardens before work, or in the car park outside The Hope on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, keeps on. West Dulwich or the heart of West Norwood: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt in West Norwood or a drive out in Dulwich. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever you are around Greater London — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Elder Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
West Norwood: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Shell or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around West Norwood.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. West Norwood sits under 10 miles from the M4; on it, take the next junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across West Norwood is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Westminster — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around West Norwood, what happens?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside St Luke's Church of England Primary School, beside Christian Centre or at home, our van travels to it. The replies determine the work and our price, and so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire 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 does not wash out on its own. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. Next our engineers start the car and check it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers arrive. The insurer will ask for 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 — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About West Norwood and where it is
West Norwood is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 5.6 miles from the city centre. West Norwood sits at an elevation of 58 metres, with its predominant housing stock consisting of flats. West Norwood is located near other suburban areas such as West Dulwich and Gipsy Hill, and is part of the larger Norwood area. West Norwood has a population of around 12381 residents.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, West Norwood included
Over SE postcodes, our teams that cover West Norwood — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, Norwood New Town and Gipsy Hill among them. Quote a postcode beginning SE27 9, and the van arrives fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near West Norwood Lawn Tennis & Social Club, a lay-by on the way to Norwood Park, a driveway. Assuming won't help behind Thomas Letts family vault, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
West Norwood drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Greater London.