Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Deal
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done right where your car sits in Deal, is normally what it needs if found before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Deal and Sholden carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Deal
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off London Road, or at The Queen Street Tap on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, no part stops it. Middle Deal or the middle of Deal: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Deal forecourt or a driveway over in Walmer, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what goes in each filler right there.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- 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 at the nearest station.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Kent — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of West Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It works.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Deal?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually help pushing your car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Deal.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M20, under 15 miles from Deal, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Deal is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Canterbury — so say about how far it went.
What happens when we arrive around Deal
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Sandown School, near St Thomas of Canterbury Roman Catholic Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before we go.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Deal, for a moment
Deal is a coastal town in Kent, situated on the English Channel at an elevation of around 6 metres. Deal sits approximately 14 miles from Canterbury and 68 miles from London, with nearby places including Middle Deal, Lower Walmer, and Upper Deal. Deal has a population of around 17,510 people and predominantly features terraced housing.
AdBlue drains in Deal and across Kent
Deal is a coastal town, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Lower Walmer and Upper Deal among them, across the CT postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting CT14 6.
No need to move the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to St George's Gardens of Rest, a side street near Kent MOMI: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Salvation Army? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
For Deal motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere across Kent: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.