Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gillingham: Why It Occurs
Keep your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car sits in Gillingham, is normally what it takes when found before your engine runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads round Gillingham and Ham Common carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Gillingham
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off High Street before work, or in the car park at Red Lion heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Gillingham or out in Lodbourne.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt in Gillingham or a driveway over in Colesbrook. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 Gillingham (Dorset).
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across Dorset the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Queen Street on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after 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.
- Stop once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gillingham already?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Shell, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Gillingham.
When the engine has been run already, stop safely then switch the vehicle off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Gillingham, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Gillingham makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Wells — so say roughly how far it went.
Gillingham: what occurs when we arrive
Outside Gillingham Primary School, close to Gillingham Methodist Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we leave, our engineers start the engine and check that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our technicians 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, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Gillingham, for a moment
Gillingham is a town situated in the Blackmore Vale in Dorset, England, with a riverside setting and an elevation of around 72 metres. Gillingham lies near the confluence of the Rivers Stour and Lodbourne, close to the villages of Lodbourne and Peacemarsh. Gillingham has a population of approximately 10230 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Gillingham is located about 20 miles from the city of Wells and 98 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Gillingham and across Dorset
Throughout SP postcodes, our teams covering Gillingham — a riverside town — work the surrounding places too, Peacemarsh and Cold Harbour included. Give a postcode beginning SP8 4, and our van arrives quickest.
The car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it stands — beside Gillingham Community Church, in a lay-by heading to Town Meadow, on a drive — that is where it gets cleared. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Gracie Barra, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Gillingham motorists
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Dorset.