Great Chart: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Great Chart. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Great Chart and Worten carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Great Chart: how it happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Singleton Road before work, or in the car park at Swan and Dog heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Great Chart or out in Singleton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt around Great Chart or a driveway over in Beaver. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Ashford International.
Keeping AdBlue out of your 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 your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Ninn Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Great Chart?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at BP, eg or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Great Chart.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M20, under 3 miles from Great Chart, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Great Chart.
What happens when our technicians turn up in Great Chart
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Grace Fellowship Ashford, or by Great Chart Primary School. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the answers decide this work and the price. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. After that our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Great Chart and where it is
Great Chart is a village in Kent, situated on the River Great Stour, with an elevation of around 43 metres. Great Chart has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and it is located near other small communities like Singleton and Chilmington Green. Great Chart is close to the city of Canterbury, which is about 14 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, at approximately 48.5 miles away. Great Chart remains a small, rural village with a population of around 865 people.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Great Chart included
Great Chart is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Chilmington Green and Brookfield among them, across the TN postcode area. A postcode starting TN23 3 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. Anywhere it stands — near St. Mary's Church, on a layby en route to Great Chart Cricket Club, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Singleton Village Hall.
In short, for Great Chart people
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Kent.