Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Street: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in East Street. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads around East Street and Coombe carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
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. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around East Street
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 East Street before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of East Street or out in Each End.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around East Street or a driveway over in Marshborough. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Sandwich.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Kent that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Goss Hall Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in East Street?
Short list, then. First: your engine remains off. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in East Street.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction means where to leave when you are on the M20, under 15 miles from East Street. Distance counts — a short hop across East Street is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Canterbury — so say roughly how far it went.
East Street: what occurs when our technicians get there
By Ash Cartwright and Kelsey Church of England Primary School, close to Watermills Wake and Aqua Park or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies determine this work and the quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Then your tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About East Street itself
East Street is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Kent, with a low elevation of around 12 metres. East Street lies near the cities of Canterbury and London, with the latter being approximately 64 miles away. East Street is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by other small settlements such as Each End and Cooper Street. East Street remains a quiet residential community with a population of around 555 people.
AdBlue drains around East Street, and Kent beyond
Over CT postcodes, the teams that cover East Street — a rural hamlet — work the nearby locations too, Weddington and Cooper Street included. Give a postcode that starts CT3 2, and our van arrives quickest.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Anywhere it stands — near St Nicholas, on a lay-by en route to Gazen Salts Nature Reserve, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Richborough Roman Amphitheatre? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
For East Street people, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Kent, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.