What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Ditton
One fact counts above all when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is if your engine has run since. Not started so far? Then keep it that way, wherever the vehicle sits — Ditton or Royal British Legion Village. Leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103; it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Ditton. Stop the minute it is safe and turn off, if it has already run. The job is bigger, but the first step is the same.
Below: the situations we meet, wherever around Kent. Choose yours.
At the petrol pump around Ditton: AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you only spot it while you're standing at the pump, bottle or the nozzle in your hand. Somewhere around Ditton, then — Esso, Sainsbury's, or somewhere else nearby.
Put simply: no better place exists to discover it. The AdBlue is inside that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
Your move: stay out of the driver's seat, even if the pump needs clearing. Three things: a push into a bay with the attendants assisting, the receipt saved, and a call to us from the forecourt. If it cannot be shifted, it can be emptied at the petrol pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt.
At home around Ditton with AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been warning you. Picked up a bottle, poured it in outside the house, recycled the empty — and at that point looked at the cap a second time, too late. It takes place on drives just off London Road as often as anywhere.
Put simply: if the vehicle hasn't been driven since, it is almost equal to finding out at the pump. As it is unable to mix, AdBlue settles to the base inside your tank and waits. A night parked changes nothing.
Keep your keys indoors overnight — or someone may drive it off first thing — and phone us. Your drive is where it gets drained, be it around Ditton or Millhall. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
On the road in Ditton with AdBlue in a diesel
Filled up, pulled away, and before long the motor was running unevenly, smoking, losing power, or lighting up your dash. It might have been driving to Southend-on-Sea, under 25 miles away, or simply along Station Road.
Meaning? Your pump has sucked the AdBlue in. The high-pressure pump and every injector get it too on a bigger run, once the filter and pipework have it. Each restart, like each mile, pushes it on.
Next: find a safe spot, stop, then switch the engine off. Leave by the first junction — not the services further along — if you're on the M20, under a mile from Ditton. No trial restarts: clearing itself isn't something AdBlue will do. Roughly what distance had it go? Say so when you phone.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company cars
It's a motor you have had for a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is absent or elsewhere. On this one, the inlet is just by your diesel cap — a surprise to you. Anywhere you happen to be in Kent, every motorist could be caught.
The upshot: exactly as above, split by whether it ran, only with one added stage. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on your car.
Next: ring the rental company or your fleet manager first, and then us — settling it before we arrive is quicker. If you are stranded in the car park at Aylesford, or by Ditton war Memorial, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Ditton?
Sometimes the fair answer is "I think so". The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia round the filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. The gates of Ditton Church of England Junior School in a rush, perhaps, or someone's driveway over in Lunsford.
Meaning? Drips around the filler don't reach your engine at all. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. Turning on the car won't tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in that tank it will draw it in.
Your move: act as though it got in, and don't start your engine. Describe what you saw on the phone. A clean tank looked at is a happier result than a run one emptied.
Ditton: what every AdBlue drain has in common
The job begins identically, whichever the situation. Our technicians come to your car, whether it's at a forecourt, a driveway, the car park at Kilnbarn or a side street near St Peter ad Vincula (Ditton Parish Church), and ask three things: what was put in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run. The price is given over the phone, before a van leaves, and those replies shape the work.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
We start the engine last. Our test that it runs properly on fresh diesel comes before we leave. The whole job is done where the car is, and if it's noticed quickly, long-term damage is very rare. Nothing is paid upfront, payment is made on the day, and you get what the insurer wants: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Dig out your insurance while we're en route: misfuelling cover is built into plenty of policies.
About Ditton itself
Ditton is a village situated on the riverside in Kent, with an elevation of around 10 metres above sea level. Ditton lies approximately 29 miles from London and is close to the nearby places of Millhall, Larkfield, and New Hythe. Ditton has a population of around 2724 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Ditton is also near the city of Southend-on-Sea, which is about 20 miles away.
Ditton and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Ditton has the same vans as the surrounding towns — New Hythe, Larkfield — all the way across ME postcodes. Giving us a ME20 6 postcode pins you quickest of all.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Kilnbarn Recreation Ground or in a car park in the middle of Ditton, it does not need to move. Where it sits, that is where it gets cleared. Guessing doesn't help near Ditton Community Centre, close to a county line or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
The one-line version
Motor not started: ring, and leave it alone. Whatever case applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over from there on 0333 366 0103, across Kent and in Ditton — after you pull over, turn off then ring, if it has run.