Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Charing
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Charing. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Charing and Stockers Head carry, with diesel for the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Separate tanks, different 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. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Charing: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off The High Street before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you vehicles come next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Charing or out in Broadway.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Westwell Leacon or a forecourt in Charing, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you 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 the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — wherever it is around Kent — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of School Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, 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.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Charing?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Charing Motors Ltd., the Esso or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Charing.
Where the engine has been run already, pull over safely and switch the vehicle off. The next junction means where to come off when you are on the M20, under 3 miles from Charing. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Charing.
Our arrival in Charing, and what happens next
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Charing Church of England Primary School, close to Charing Library or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because those answers decide the work and quote. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Charing, for a moment
Charing is a village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 103 metres, approximately 13 miles from Canterbury and 45 miles from London. Charing has a population of around 942 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Charing is close to nearby places such as Broadway, Charing Hill, and Coppins Corner. Charing remains a small, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
Charing and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Charing is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Charing Hill and Coppins Corner among them, across the TN postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts TN27 0, and our van arrives quickest.
The car does not need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Peter & St Paul, a lay-by on the way to Cleward's Meadow, a driveway. Guessing doesn't help behind Charing Village Hall, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Charing motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Kent.