Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Buckland Valley: Why It Happens
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when the engine has not run, it is drained and thoroughly purged where your vehicle sits around Buckland Valley. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Tower Hamlets, like those in Buckland Valley, carry on two liquids; the motor takes just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Buckland Valley: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Green Lane, perhaps at Wheelwright's Arms on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Buckland Valley or out in Buckland.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Buckland Valley forecourt or a drive out in River, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- 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 Dover Priory.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Kent that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not rushed beside Montreal Close on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Buckland Valley?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays off. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the Esso or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Buckland Valley.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Buckland Valley sits under 10 miles from the M20; there, take the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Buckland Valley makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Canterbury — so say about how far it went.
Buckland Valley: what occurs when we get there
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Shatterlocks Infant and Nursery School, close to St Nicholas or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out until you've had the quote by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Buckland Valley itself
Buckland Valley is a suburban area in Kent, situated near the coast and approximately 13.5 miles from Canterbury. Buckland Valley sits at an elevation of around 51 metres, with its terraced housing stock reflecting the area's development as a residential community. Buckland Valley is located near other local places, including Buckland, St Radigunds, and Crabble, and is about 66.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Buckland Valley included
As a residential suburb, Buckland Valley has the same vans as surrounding places — St Radigunds, Crabble — right through CT postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting CT16 2 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. Anywhere it stands — beside Catholic Church, on a lay-by heading to The Green, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Guessing won't help at the back of St. Andrew's, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
For Buckland Valley drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Kent.