AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leigh: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Leigh, catching it before the engine runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many newer diesels driven around Leigh and Upper Hayesden hold a second liquid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Leigh: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Hildenborough Road before work, or in the car park outside The Fleur De Lis on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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 after it has started. Stocks Green or the heart of Leigh: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Leigh forecourt or a driveway over in Wickhurst, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- 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 outside Leigh (Kent).
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Kent — a simple routine to use.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Powder Mill Lane.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
Leigh: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — BP, Bidborough Service Station or any other — the attendants will usually help push your car away, when you ask. At home in Leigh? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M25 — under 10 miles out of Leigh — at the first exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Leigh is a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to London — so tell us about how far it went.
When we turn up in Leigh, what occurs?
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St Mary's, or by Leigh Primary School. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because those replies decide both work and quote. Nobody sets off until you've had the quote by phone.
Then the tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our technicians head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Leigh, briefly
Leigh is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 35 metres, and is located approximately 26 miles from London. Leigh has a population of around 722 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Leigh is near to other small settlements such as Stocks Green, Powder Mills, and Lower Haysden, and is part of the wider countryside of the South East region. Leigh sits in a rural area with nearby cities, including London, being within commuting distance.
Leigh and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Leigh is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Powder Mills and Lower Haysden among them, across the TN postcode area. A postcode starting TN11 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Leigh Village Green, a side street near St John the Evangelist: we drain the vehicle where it sits. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Hildenborough Library? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Leigh motorists
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere in Kent: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.