AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hollingbourne: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not run, it's drained and fully purged where your vehicle sits in Hollingbourne. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Chegworth, like those in Hollingbourne, carry on two liquids; your motor gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Hollingbourne
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Church Green before work, or in the car park at The Dirty Habit heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you cars come second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap 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 after it has started. Whether it takes place in Eyhorne Street or the middle of Hollingbourne, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in Hollingbourne or a driveway out in Broomfield. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are around Kent — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of New Cottages, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hollingbourne?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains off. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Esso, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. Your own driveway in Hollingbourne is the place it stays.
When your engine has run by now, stop safely then turn the car off. Hollingbourne sits under a mile from the M20; there, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Hollingbourne.
Our arrival around Hollingbourne, and what occurs next
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it outside Hollingbourne Primary School, near All Saints, Hollingbourne or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Which liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set both work and quote. That price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need about half an hour after we are there. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Hollingbourne, briefly
Hollingbourne is a rural village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 83 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Hollingbourne lies near the villages of Eyhorne Street, Broad Street, and Ashbank, and is approximately 18.9 miles from Canterbury. Hollingbourne has a population of around 711 residents and is located about 37.1 miles from London. Hollingbourne sits in a scenic part of the South East, with rolling countryside and nearby woodlands.
AdBlue drains round Hollingbourne, and Kent beyond
As a rural village, Hollingbourne has the same vans as nearby areas — Broad Street, Ashbank — right through ME postcodes and the wider area around them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting ME17 1.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near Cardwell Pavilion, or a lay-by towards Lance Memorial Field. Awkward to explain, like the back of Charles Goldup Memorial? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
Hollingbourne motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, anywhere across Kent: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.