Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Frindsbury
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Frindsbury. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Noke Street, as well as Frindsbury, carry on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Frindsbury
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Berber Road before work, or in the car park at the weston arms on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap 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 once it has started. Strood or the heart of Frindsbury: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Upper Upnor or a forecourt around Frindsbury, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a rental or company car — from Strood's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere it is around Kent — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Cromer Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Frindsbury?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Frindsbury.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Frindsbury sits under 3 miles from the M2; there, use the next exit. A short hop across Frindsbury is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Frindsbury, and what occurs next
Wherever your car has stopped, be it by English Martyrs' Catholic Primary School, beside English Martyrs or at home, the van comes to it. Those answers decide the work and the price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. No one heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Then your tank is emptied and the system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Before we go, our engineers start it and confirm that it is running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Frindsbury, briefly
Frindsbury is a suburban area in Kent, situated on the coastal fringe of the Thames estuary at an elevation of around 29 metres. Frindsbury lies near the historic city of Rochester and the towns of Strood and Wainscott, with Southend-on-Sea approximately 13 miles to the east. Frindsbury is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Frindsbury is also relatively close to London, at a distance of around 28 miles.
AdBlue drains in Frindsbury and across Kent
As a residential suburb, Frindsbury has the same vans as nearby areas — Wainscott, Rochester — all the way through ME postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ME2 3.
Shifting the car isn't needed. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street near New Testament Church of God, or a layby towards Broomhill Park. Guessing doesn't help behind Salvation Army Strood, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Frindsbury motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere around Kent.