Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greenhithe: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not run, it is emptied and fully flushed where the car sits in Greenhithe. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Greenhithe and Stone carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, again and again. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Greenhithe: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off The Avenue, perhaps outside Pier Hotel on the way home that evening.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it 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, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it occurs in Swanscombe or the middle of Greenhithe, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Greenhithe forecourt or a drive over in Horns Cross, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Greenhithe for Bluewater? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across Kent, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Knockhall Chase.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Greenhithe: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Asda, ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Greenhithe.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Greenhithe sits under 3 miles from the M25; there, take the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Greenhithe is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards London, and so tell us.
Our arrival in Greenhithe, and what takes place next
Outside Knockhall Primary School, close to St Mary's Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the answers settle this work and the quote. No one sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we start the car and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a busy 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 we arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Greenhithe
Greenhithe is a suburban area in Kent, situated approximately 18 miles from central London and near the Bluewater shopping complex. Greenhithe sits at an elevation of around 28 metres, in a gently sloping landscape near the Thames estuary. Greenhithe has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes, and is close to nearby places such as Swanscombe and Knockhall.
Greenhithe and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Greenhithe is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Knockhall and Bluewater among them, across the DA postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning DA9 9, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Ingress Abbey Heritage Park, a side street near Claire Tiltman Memorial: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Greenhithe Community Centre, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Greenhithe motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Kent.