Allhallows: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle sits in Allhallows, is usually all it takes when caught before your motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many modern diesels driven round Allhallows and Stoke hold a second fluid too. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Allhallows?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off St Davids Road, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Allhallows or out in Allhallows-on-Sea.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in St Mary Hoo or a forecourt in Allhallows.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Chalkwell.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Kent, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Avery Way, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Allhallows?
Short list, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Gulf, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear when you ask. Your own drive in Allhallows is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M2, under 10 miles from Allhallows, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Allhallows.
When our engineers arrive in Allhallows, what occurs?
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near All Saints, or by Leigh Academy Peninsula East. Which liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the replies decide both work and quote. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Then your tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Allhallows, for a moment
Allhallows is a small village on the coast of Kent, situated near the mouth of the Thames Estuary at an elevation of around 12 metres. Allhallows has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the village is close to the nearby settlements of Allhallows-on-Sea, Lower Stoke, and Middle Stoke. Allhallows is located within commuting distance of London, approximately 33 miles away, and is also near the city of Southend-on-Sea, which is about 6 miles away.
Allhallows and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a coastal village, Allhallows shares its vans nearby areas — Lower Stoke, Middle Stoke — right through ME postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting ME3 9 gets our van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it sits — near Slough Fort, on a lay-by en route to Allhallows Golf Course, at home — that is where it is drained. Assuming won't help behind Stoke Village Hall, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Allhallows motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.