How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ham Hill
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Ham Hill, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels driven around Ham Hill and Holborough carry a second fluid too. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Ham Hill?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a drive off Apple Close before work, or in the car park outside Freemasons Arms heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Lunsford or the middle of Ham Hill, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt around Ham Hill or a drive over in Leybourne. Seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Snodland, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Kent the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Cooper Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Ham Hill?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine stays off. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the Tesco or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Ham Hill.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Ham Hill sits under a mile from the M20; there, use the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ham Hill.
Ham Hill: what occurs when we get there
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Katherine's School & Nursery, close to Christ Church or on your own drive. Those answers determine the work and the price, so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is cleared and your system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is safe on a live 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 go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Ham Hill and where it is
Ham Hill is a suburban area situated on the lakeside in Kent, with an elevation of around 15 metres. Ham Hill lies near several nearby places, including Lunsford, Snodland, and New Hythe, and is located approximately 19 miles from Southend-on-Sea. Ham Hill has a population of around 2728 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Ham Hill is also within commuting distance to London, being around 27 miles away.
Ham Hill and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Ham Hill is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Snodland and New Hythe among them, across the ME postcode area. Fastest of all: give a ME6 5 postcode for our van.
The vehicle remains put. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Frog, a lay-by on the way to Neville Park, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Swan.
For Ham Hill motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Kent.