Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lenham: Why It Happens
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Lenham, catching it before the motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds the engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Lenham and West Street carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It's in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Lenham
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Old Ashford Road before work, or in the car park outside Red Lion heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Leadingcross Green or right in the centre of Lenham.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Lenham forecourt or a drive out in Lenham Forstal, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Kent, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of High Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Lenham: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: your motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Charing Motors Ltd., ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Lenham.
Where your engine has run already, stop somewhere safe then switch it off. Come off the M20 — under 3 miles out of Lenham — at the first exit. A short hop across Lenham is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Lenham: what occurs when we arrive
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Lenham Primary School, near Lenham Library or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. Once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before we head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Lenham, briefly
Lenham is a village in Kent, situated on the banks of the River Great Stour at an elevation of around 117 metres. Lenham lies approximately 41 miles southeast of London and 16 miles southwest of Canterbury, with nearby villages including Leadingcross Green and Sandway. Lenham has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent. Lenham remains a relatively small community, with a population of around 1505 residents.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Lenham included
Sandway and Woodside Green are among the places around Lenham, a village, that the same vans cover, over ME postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts ME17 2, and our van gets there fastest.
The car remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near St Mary's Church, Lenham, a lay-by on the way to Lenham Cricket Club, a drive. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Lenham Community Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Lenham people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Kent.