Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in High Knocke: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around High Knocke. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of newer diesels driven round High Knocke and Burmarsh hold another fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in High Knocke
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Dymchurch Road, or heading home in the car park outside Ocean Inn.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Dymchurch or the middle of High Knocke, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a High Knocke forecourt or a drive over in Donkey Street, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Westenhanger.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of St. Marys Gardens.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
High Knocke: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Esso or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around High Knocke.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. High Knocke sits under 10 miles from the M20; there, take the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across High Knocke is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles to Canterbury, so tell us.
When we get there in High Knocke, what takes place?
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Dymchurch, or outside Dymchurch Primary School. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. That quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About High Knocke, for a moment
High Knocke is a small village on the coast of Kent, situated near the Romney Marsh area. High Knocke has a low elevation of around 4 metres, and its proximity to the sea has influenced its development. High Knocke is located near other coastal settlements such as Dymchurch and St Marys Bay, and is around 18 miles from the city of Canterbury. High Knocke remains a quiet residential community with a mix of housing types, including semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains around High Knocke and across Kent
High Knocke is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, St Marys Bay and St Mary in the Marsh among them, across the TN postcode area. A postcode starting TN29 0 gets the van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by Dymchurch Amusements, or a lay-by on the way to Dymchurch Recreation Ground. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Dymchurch Village Hall, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In short, for High Knocke drivers
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Kent.