AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bredgar: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Pause here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not turned, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits in Bredgar. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels in Deans Hill, as well as Bredgar, run on two fluids; your motor takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Bredgar?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Primrose Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Sun Inn on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Silver Street or the middle of Bredgar: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Bredgar forecourt or a driveway over in Bexon, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Sittingbourne, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever in Kent, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside The Street at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Bredgar?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone starts your pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. At home in Bredgar? Then the car remains put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the M2, under a mile from Bredgar. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Bredgar makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Southend-on-Sea — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Bredgar, and what happens next
By Bredgar Church of England Primary School, close to Bredgar Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those replies decide this work and our quote. Nobody sets off before you have heard our quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. Hence it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Bredgar and where it is
Bredgar is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 86 metres, and is located approximately 38 miles from London. Bredgar has a population of around 682 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Bredgar is near to several small settlements, including Silver Street, Stiff Street, and Swanton Street. Bredgar is also close to the city of Southend-on-Sea, which is about 15.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Bredgar included
Bredgar is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Stiff Street and Swanton Street among them, across the ME postcode area. Fastest of all: give a ME9 8 postcode to the van.
Your car stays where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Frid Wood, a side street near Bredgar Village Hall: we drain the vehicle where it sits. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Tunstall Village Memorial Hall, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Bredgar motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Kent.