Hawkinge: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. In Hawkinge, finding it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your motor — but many modern diesels driven round Hawkinge and Elvington hold another liquid too. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. 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. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hawkinge: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Aerodrome Road before work, or in the car park at The Mayfly on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part stops it. It's seconds, be it in Gibraltar or bang in the centre of Hawkinge.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Ridge Row or a forecourt around Hawkinge.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Folkestone West? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Kent that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Blenheim Drive at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hawkinge already?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Hawkinge Fuel Express, Sainsbury's or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, if you ask. On your own drive around Hawkinge? So the car stays put.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M20 — under 3 miles out of Hawkinge — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Hawkinge is less work than a trip of under 15 miles to Canterbury, and so tell us.
Hawkinge: what occurs when our engineers turn up
By Hawkinge Primary School, close to Hawkinge Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the replies decide both work and quote. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Hawkinge itself
Hawkinge is a village in Kent, situated on the coast near the White Cliffs of Dover, with a mix of detached housing and rural landscapes. Hawkinge sits at an elevation of 152 metres, overlooking the English Channel, and is close to nearby places such as Gibraltar, Densole, and Paddlesworth. Hawkinge is located near the city of Canterbury, which is approximately 11.9 miles away, and is about 62 miles from London. Hawkinge has a population of around 2819 people, living in predominantly detached homes.
AdBlue drains around Hawkinge and across Kent
Densole and Paddlesworth are among the towns around Hawkinge, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, over CT postcodes. A postcode starting CT18 7 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Hawkinge Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Harvest Way Recreation Ground, a drive. Guessing doesn't help behind St Luke's, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
The short version for Hawkinge people
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Kent.