AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Thamesmead: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In West Thamesmead, finding it before your engine runs usually means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Here in advance? Then the rest explains how it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — but many newer diesels seen about West Thamesmead and Woolwich carry another fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around West Thamesmead?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Goldfinch Road before work, or in the car park at The Princess Alice heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Royal Arsenal West or bang in the heart of West Thamesmead.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Cyprus or a forecourt around West Thamesmead, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles show which goes in which inlet just there.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Plumstead.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere across Greater London, use this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside Battery Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
West Thamesmead: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around West Thamesmead.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Come off the M11 — under 10 miles out of West Thamesmead — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing West Thamesmead is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles towards London, so tell us.
When we get there in West Thamesmead, what happens?
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether by Discovery Primary School, near Woolwich Crown Court or at home, the van comes to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the answers settle this work and our quote. No one heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Unrun cars mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About West Thamesmead
West Thamesmead is a suburban area located on the southern banks of the River Thames in southeast London, with a low elevation of around 3 metres above sea level. West Thamesmead sits approximately 9.3 miles east of central London and is close to nearby places such as Royal Arsenal West and Abbey Wood. West Thamesmead is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, housing a population of around 9162 residents. West Thamesmead is situated near several notable areas, including Cavendish Square, and offers views of the River Thames.
AdBlue drains round West Thamesmead, and Greater London beyond
As a residential suburb, West Thamesmead shares its vans nearby places — Cavendish Square, Abbey Wood — right through SE postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a SE28 0 postcode to our van.
Your car remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Gallions Hill, a lay-by on the way to Gallions Park, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Lookout Hill, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for West Thamesmead people
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever in Greater London: keep it off and phone 0333 366 0103.