Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clap Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Clap Hill. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many current diesels driven around Clap Hill and Bonnington carry another liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Clap Hill
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Bank Road before work, or in the car park outside Walnut Tree Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Aldington or the heart of Clap Hill: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Clap Hill or a driveway over in Broad Oak. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Ham Street's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Kent that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Frith Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Clap Hill?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at John Childs Garages, Tesco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear when asked. If you are on your own drive around Clap Hill, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then turn off. The next exit is the place to leave if you are on the M20, under 3 miles from Clap Hill. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Clap Hill.
When our technicians get there in Clap Hill, what occurs?
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether by Aldington Primary School, beside Aldington Village Hall or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out before you have heard our price over the phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Clap Hill and where it is
Clap Hill is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 70 metres, and is located near the villages of Aldington and Stonestreet Green. Clap Hill has a population of approximately 507 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Clap Hill is close to the city of Canterbury, which is about 14 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, which is around 54 miles away. Clap Hill remains a quiet rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Clap Hill included
Stonestreet Green and Aldington Frith are among the places around Clap Hill, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over TN postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TN25 7.
Your car stays where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Backhouse Wood, a side street near St Martins Church: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Dreamshapes Crafts, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Clap Hill drivers: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Kent.