Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clapham Hill
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully flushed where the car is in Clapham Hill. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads around Clapham Hill and South Street carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler on every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on each filling station visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Clapham Hill?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Clapham Hill before work, or in the car park at Rose in Bloom on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour begins, nothing stops it. Whether it takes place in Seasalter or the middle of Clapham Hill, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Thurston Park or a forecourt around Clapham Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Whitstable.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — wherever you are around Kent — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Montpelier Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Clapham Hill?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your motor remains unstarted. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at JET, Tesco or another forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Clapham Hill.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M2 — under 5 miles out of Clapham Hill — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Clapham Hill is smaller a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Canterbury, and so tell us.
What takes place when our technicians arrive in Clapham Hill
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Joy Lane Primary Foundation School, close to St. Andrew's Church Centre or on your own driveway. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since the replies decide the work and quote. No one heads out until you've heard the price over the phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Clapham Hill, briefly
Clapham Hill is a coastal locality in Kent, situated near the city of Canterbury and overlooking the Thames Estuary. Clapham Hill has a population of around 715 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Clapham Hill sits at an elevation of 55 metres, close to nearby places such as Seasalter and Yorkletts. Clapham Hill is also within commuting distance to London, being approximately 50.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Clapham Hill included
Yorkletts and Lower Island are among the places around Clapham Hill, a coastal area, that the same vans cover, throughout CT postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a CT5 3 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the car. Wherever it sits — beside St. Alphege, in a layby heading to Benacre Wood, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Tricky to explain, like the back of Seasalter Christian Centre? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Clapham Hill drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Kent.