AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dartford: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the engine has not turned, it's drained and fully cleaned where your vehicle is in Dartford. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels around Dartford and New Town carry, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dartford: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Crossways Boulevard, or outside The Wharf on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Dartford or out in Crossways.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Dartford or a drive out in Stone. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which goes in each filler just there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Stone Crossing's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Kent, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Anchor Boulevard, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dartford already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Shell, Asda or any other — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Dartford.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then switch off. The next junction means the place to leave when you are on the M25, under 3 miles from Dartford. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards London, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dartford.
When our engineers arrive in Dartford, what happens?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Anselm's Catholic Primary School, near Dartford Valley Rugby Football Club or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because those answers set the work and price. Nobody heads out before you have heard the price by phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Dartford and where it is
Dartford is a significant town in Kent, England, positioned inland and relatively close to the capital city. It is nestled near the border with London, with the borough of Bexley adjacent to the west. The town is also situated near the Thames Estuary, which separates it from Thurrock in Essex. Dartford serves as a key settlement in the area, surrounded by other boroughs and districts.
Dartford and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout DA postcodes, our vans that cover Dartford — a town — work the surrounding places too, Temple Hill and The Bridge included. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting DA2 6.
Your car remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street near Claire Tiltman Youth Centre, a lay-by on the way to Attlee Drive Park., a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Dartford (Cambria) Sea Scout Group? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Dartford motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere around Kent: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.