AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boughton Street: How It Happens and How to Prevent 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. Normally, when the engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the car sits in Boughton Street. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Boughton Street and Hickmans Green run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Boughton Street
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off The Street before work, or in the car park at The Queen's Head on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. Whether it happens in Boughton under Blean or the middle of Boughton Street, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Slutshole or a forecourt in Boughton Street.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 Selling.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in Kent — a routine to use.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of School Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Boughton Street: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Boughton Street, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. On the M2, under 3 miles from Boughton Street, that means the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Boughton Street is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Canterbury — so say about how far it went.
What takes place when our technicians arrive around Boughton Street
The van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside St Barnabas, or outside Boughton-under-Blean and Dunkirk Primary School. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since those replies settle the work and our quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it washes away on its own, however long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Boughton Street itself
Boughton Street is a suburban area in Kent, situated approximately 5.6 miles from Canterbury and 48.8 miles from London. Boughton Street lies inland at an elevation of around 37 metres, near the villages of Boughton under Blean and Staplestreet. Boughton Street has a population of around 1496 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Boughton Street included
Staplestreet and Horselees are among the places near Boughton Street, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over ME postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts ME13 9, and our van arrives quickest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Academy Course, a side street close to Boughton Village Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Assuming won't help at the back of Boughton Library, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
Boughton Street motorists: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.