AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wimbledon: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Wimbledon. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Wimbledon and Crooked Billet run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Wimbledon
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Queens Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Garratt & Gauge.
New-to-you cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. South Wimbledon or the heart of Wimbledon: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Wimbledon forecourt or a driveway over in Merton, take a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Greater London — a routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Broadway Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Wimbledon already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs your pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Esso, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear if asked. On your own drive in Wimbledon? Then your car stays where it is.
Where your motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch it off. The next junction means where to leave if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Wimbledon. A short hop across Wimbledon is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Wimbledon: what happens when our technicians turn up
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, near Curzon Wimbledon or on your own driveway. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, because the answers decide the work and our price. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes away unaided, however long it is left. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Wimbledon itself
Wimbledon is a locality in south-west London, situated approximately 6.9 miles from central London and 6.5 miles from Westminster. Wimbledon lies near several other local areas, including South Wimbledon, Merton Park, and Wimbledon Common, and is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing. Wimbledon has a population of around 6463 people and is set in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of 27 metres. Wimbledon is a distinct and separate area within the larger London urban landscape.
AdBlue drains around Wimbledon, and Greater London beyond
As a small village, Wimbledon has the same vans as nearby places — Merton Park, Wimbledon Common — all the way across SW postcodes and the wider area around them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SW19 1.
No need to move your car. We drain it where it is — a side street near Odeon Wimbledon, a lay-by on the way to South Park Gardens, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Two Fat Ladies? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
For Wimbledon motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Greater London, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.