Aldington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Aldington. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Aldington and Aldington Frith run, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Aldington?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off New Road Hill, or on the way home in the car park outside Walnut Tree Inn.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, be it in Clap Hill or bang in the centre of Aldington.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Postling Green or a forecourt around Aldington.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- 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 Ham Street.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Mill Lane, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Aldington?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — John Childs Garages, Tesco or another — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Aldington.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M20, under 3 miles from Aldington, that means the next exit. A short hop across Aldington is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there in Aldington
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Aldington Primary School, close to Aldington Village Hall or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. On the call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we leave, we fire it up and check that it's running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Aldington and where it is
Aldington is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 50 metres, and is located approximately 54.5 miles from London. Aldington lies near several other rural communities, including Clap Hill, Bonnington, and Stonestreet Green, and is about 14.5 miles from the city of Canterbury. Aldington has a population of around 536 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Aldington remains a quiet, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains about Aldington, and Kent beyond
Aldington is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Bonnington and Stonestreet Green among them, across the TN postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts TN25 7, and our van arrives fastest.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Knoll Wood, a side street close to St Martins Church: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Saint Rumwold's Church? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
Aldington drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Kent, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.