Barrow Green: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car is in Barrow Green. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Barrow Green and Conyer carry, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Barrow Green
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off The Crescent, or heading home in the car park outside Dover Castle.
Then your car is unfamiliar. 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.
No part 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. Whether it takes place in Cellarhill or the middle of Barrow Green, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Deerton Street or a forecourt around Barrow Green.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- Can't find it beside the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say 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 Teynham.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever around Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by Station Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Barrow Green already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Norton Cross Service Station, BP or another — the staff will usually help push your car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Barrow Green, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M2, under 3 miles from Barrow Green, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Barrow Green is less a job than a run of under 15 miles to Canterbury, and so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Barrow Green
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Teynham Parochial Church of England Primary School, close to Teynham Village Hall or on your own driveway. Those replies determine this work and our quote, and so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before leaving, our engineers start it and confirm that it is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Barrow Green and where it is
Barrow Green is a suburban area in Kent, situated near the coast and approximately 12 miles from Canterbury. Barrow Green has a relatively low elevation of 14 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Cellarhill and Teynham. Barrow Green is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Barrow Green is also within commuting distance to London, being around 42 miles from the city centre.
Barrow Green and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, Barrow Green shares its vans surrounding areas — Teynham Street, Teynham — all the way through ME postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting ME9 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St Mary, a lay-by on the way to Teynham Playing Fields, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Norton Village Hall? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Barrow Green motorists
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Kent.