How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burham
Keep the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when your motor has not run, it is drained and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle sits in Burham. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Burham and Peters Village carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Burham
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Church Street, perhaps at The Windmill on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Scarborough or right in the centre of Burham.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Blue Bell Hill or a forecourt around Burham, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler isn't 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 — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Snodland.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Kent, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Old School Close, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Burham?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your engine remains unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at JET, BP or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle clear when you ask. At home in Burham? So your car stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M2, under 3 miles from Burham, that means the next exit. A short hop across Burham is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Burham, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Burham Church of England Primary School, near Burham Village Hall or at home, our van comes to it. Those replies decide this work and our quote, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Burham, briefly
Burham is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 52 metres, and is located approximately 28.8 miles from London. Burham has a population of around 600 people and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. Burham is close to the nearby city of Southend-on-Sea, which is 17.5 miles away. Burham is also near other local places such as Burham Court and Eccles.
Burham and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Burham Court and Eccles are among the towns around Burham, a rural village, that the same vans cover, throughout ME postcodes. A postcode starting ME1 3 gets the van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Burham Park, a side street close to The Old School Community Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Roman Building.
The short version for Burham motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever across Kent: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.