Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cliffe: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Cliffe, finding it before the motor runs normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels near Cliffe and Cliffe Woods carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Cliffe?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
On a driveway off Buttway Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Six Bells heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Cliffe or out in West Street.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Church Street or a forecourt in Cliffe.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Higham? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Swingate Avenue.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Cliffe: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the JET, the Gulf or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Cliffe.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M2, under 5 miles from Cliffe, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Cliffe is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles towards Southend-on-Sea, so say.
When we arrive in Cliffe, what happens?
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Helen's, or by St Helen's Church of England Primary School, Cliffe. What fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those answers decide the work and price. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Cliffe and where it is
Cliffe is a village on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, situated near the Thames estuary at an elevation of around 18 metres. Cliffe lies within commuting distance of London, approximately 27 miles to the west, and is close to the nearby city of Southend-on-Sea. Cliffe has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent, and is surrounded by other small communities such as West Street and Cooling. Cliffe is also near to Cooling Street, a small hamlet to the north.
Cliffe and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout ME postcodes, our teams covering Cliffe — a coastal village — work the nearby spots too, Cooling Street and Cooling included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ME3 7.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Cliffe Memorial Hall, or a lay-by on the way to The Buttway Recreational Area. Guessing won't help behind 2nd Cliffe Scouts, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Cliffe drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.