AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coppins Corner: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor hasn't turned, it's drained and fully cleaned where your vehicle is in Coppins Corner. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels around Coppins Corner and Westwell Leacon carry, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler on each tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The slip lives in that gap.
Coppins Corner: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Pluckley Road, or at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's 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. Whether it happens in Broadway or the middle of Coppins Corner, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Charing Hill or a forecourt around Coppins Corner.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- 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 at Charing.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Kent — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hook Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Coppins Corner?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine stays off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Charing Motors Ltd., Esso or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Coppins Corner, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you are on the M20, under a mile from Coppins Corner. About how far did it go? Crossing Coppins Corner is smaller work than a trip of under 15 miles towards Canterbury, so say.
Coppins Corner: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Charing Church of England Primary School, near Charing Village Hall or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so we ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. After your filter has been flushed — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. After that our technicians start the engine and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Coppins Corner itself
Coppins Corner is a small locality in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 86 metres, approximately 13.9 miles from Canterbury and 44.6 miles from London. Coppins Corner is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Coppins Corner lies near other small settlements such as Broadway, Charing, and Charing Heath, and has a population of around 606 residents.
AdBlue drains in Coppins Corner and across Kent
Throughout TN postcodes, our vans that cover Coppins Corner — a small village — work the surrounding locations too, Charing Heath and Charing among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TN27 0.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. Wherever it sits — beside Charing Library, in a lay-by heading to Beesmount, at home — that's where it is drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Peter & St Paul, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Coppins Corner people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.