Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Worcester Park
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your car sits around Worcester Park, is normally all it needs if caught before your motor runs. If you're 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, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your engine — but many modern diesels driven round Worcester Park and North Cheam carry another liquid too. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which filler to use. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
Worcester Park: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Park Terrace before work, or in the car park at The Brook on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are next, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Worcester Park or out in Old Malden.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in West Barnes or a forecourt in Worcester Park.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler is not 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 — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Greater London the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Central Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the own spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
Worcester Park: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the motor stays off. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Worcester Park.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Worcester Park lies under 10 miles from the M25; there, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Worcester Park is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles to Westminster, so tell us.
Our arrival in Worcester Park, and what takes place next
Outside Cheam Common Infants' Academy, near Ryan Gate or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those answers decide this work and our price. No one heads out until you have heard our quote by phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. 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 matters more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Worcester Park itself
Worcester Park is a suburban area in southwest London, situated on the River Thames at an elevation of around 23 metres. Worcester Park lies approximately 10 miles from central London and is bordered by nearby places such as Old Malden and Motspur Park. Worcester Park has a population of around 9462 people and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Worcester Park benefits from its riverside setting and proximity to the city.
AdBlue drains around Worcester Park and across Greater London
Over KT postcodes, the teams that cover Worcester Park — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Stoneleigh and Motspur Park among them. Quickest of all: quote a KT4 7 postcode to the van.
The car remains where it is. Anywhere it sits — beside Worcester Park Athletics Club, in a layby en route to Shadbolt Park, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Worcester Park Library.
For Worcester Park motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Greater London.