AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crit Hall: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits around Crit Hall. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your engine — but many modern diesels seen around Crit Hall and Bakers Cross carry a second liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Crit Hall
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Swattenden Lane before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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. Swattenden or the middle of Crit Hall: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Benenden or a forecourt around Crit Hall, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says 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 outside Etchingham.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Kent that is.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Mounts Hill.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and 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.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Crit Hall?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Cheeseman's Garage, BP or another forecourt will normally help to push the car clear if you ask. Your own driveway in Crit Hall is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M20 — under 15 miles out of Crit Hall — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Crit Hall is less a job than a run of under 50 miles towards Canterbury, so tell us.
Crit Hall: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Wherever the car came to rest, whether outside Benenden Church of England Primary School, near Benenden R C Church or on your own drive, our van comes to it. What liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask since those replies set the work and price. No one sets off before you have heard our quote by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, we fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Crit Hall
Crit Hall is a small locality in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 99 metres, and is located near the villages of Swattenden and Four Wents. Crit Hall lies within the wider countryside of the Weald of Kent, close to the North Downs, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Crit Hall is also near to Tubslake and is approximately 27 miles from Canterbury, with London being around 42 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Crit Hall and across Kent
Crit Hall is a small village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Four Wents and Tubslake among them, across the TN postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TN17 4.
No need to move the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Parsonage Wood, a side street close to Little Farningham Roman iron production site: our technicians drain the car where it is. Tricky to explain, like the back of St George? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
Crit Hall people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Kent.