AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Friningham: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Friningham, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your engine — but many newer diesels driven about Friningham and Detling carry a second fluid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
There is a filler for every tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Friningham
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Coldblow Lane, or heading home in the car park outside The Black Horse Inn.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a new car.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip starts, nothing stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Friningham or out in Thurnham.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Friningham forecourt or a driveway over in Hucking, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's 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 Bearsted.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere in Kent the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Castle Hill, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and look again — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Friningham already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle clear when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Friningham.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M20, under 3 miles from Friningham. Distance counts — a short hop across Friningham makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Southend-on-Sea — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in Friningham
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Leigh Academy Bearsted, close to Thurnham Castle or on your own driveway. Those replies decide this work and the price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out before you've heard the quote over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. Then our engineers start it and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Friningham itself
Friningham is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 199 metres, and is located near the villages of Thurnham and Broad Street. Friningham is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Friningham lies within commuting distance of Southend-on-Sea and London, making it a residential area with access to urban amenities. Friningham has a population of around 571 residents, according to approximate estimates.
Friningham and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
As a rural hamlet, Friningham has the same vans as surrounding places — Broad Street, Lower Cox Street — right across ME postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a ME14 3 postcode for our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Civiley Wood, a side street near Kent Showground: we drain it where it stands. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Mary the Virgin.
For Friningham motorists, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.