Knockmill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Knockmill. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Knockmill and West Kingsdown carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Knockmill: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Tinker Pot Lane before work, or in the car park at The Portobello Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a strange motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Knockmill or out in Knatts Valley.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Romney Street or a forecourt in Knockmill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler is not 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 — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Kemsing.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere across Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside School Lane at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Skip stage five entirely.
Knockmill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, Gulf or another — the staff will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Knockmill.
When your engine has been run by now, stop safely and turn the vehicle off. Knockmill lies under a mile from the M20; on it, take the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Knockmill is less work than a trip of under 25 miles to London, and so tell us.
When we arrive around Knockmill, what happens?
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St. Edmund's Church of England Primary School, close to John Fordham Memorial or on your own drive. What fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because those replies set the work and price. No one sets off before you have heard the price over the phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears out unaided, however long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Knockmill, for a moment
Knockmill is a locality in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 199 metres, and is located approximately 20.7 miles from London. Knockmill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by nearby places such as Knatts Valley, Woodlands, and East Hill. Knockmill has a small population of around 515 residents and is part of the wider South East region.
AdBlue drains around Knockmill and across Kent
Over TN postcodes, the teams covering Knockmill — a small village — work the nearby spots too, East Hill and Woodlands among them. Fastest of all: quote a TN15 6 postcode to our van.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Stacklands Wood, a side street near West Kingsdown Baptist Church: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of West Kingsdown Village Hall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Knockmill people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Kent.