Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Harmans Corner: Why It Occurs
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the car sits around Harmans Corner, is usually all it takes if found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Key Street, as well as Harmans Corner, carry on two fluids; the motor takes only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler for every tank. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Harmans Corner?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Washley Hill before work, or in the car park outside The Maypole on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a new motor.
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. Borden or the middle of Harmans Corner: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Chalkwell or a forecourt in Harmans Corner.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 Sittingbourne.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Kent the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside Bannister Hill at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Harmans Corner: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Harmans Corner.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Harmans Corner sits under 3 miles from the M2; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Harmans Corner is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Harmans Corner: what happens when we turn up
Outside Minterne Junior School, near Borden Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and quote. No one heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we go, our technicians start it and confirm that it is running properly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Harmans Corner and where it is
Harmans Corner is a small suburban area in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 46 metres. Harmans Corner lies near the villages of Borden and Tunstall, and is close to the settlement of Hearts Delight. Harmans Corner is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is located approximately 14.5 miles from Southend-on-Sea. Harmans Corner is also within commuting distance of London, being around 38 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains around Harmans Corner and across Kent
Over ME postcodes, our vans covering Harmans Corner — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Tunstall and Hearts Delight among them. A postcode starting ME9 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to shift. Wherever it stands — near Tunstall Village Memorial Hall, in a layby heading to Borden Village park, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Tunstall Church, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Harmans Corner motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Kent, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.