AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Herne: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Lower Herne. Here in advance? Then the rest explains why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of current diesels seen around Lower Herne and Eddington hold another fluid too. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on each tank. 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. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Lower Herne
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Blenheim Close before work, or in the car park outside The Smugglers Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Herne or the middle of Lower Herne, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Bullockstone or a forecourt in Lower Herne, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in each inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — from Herne Bay's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Kent, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Ash Close.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Lower Herne?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Esso or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive in Lower Herne, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Lower Herne lies under 10 miles from the M2; there, take the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lower Herne.
Our arrival around Lower Herne, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether outside Herne Church of England Junior School, beside Theatre in the Park or at home, the van comes to it. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set both work and price. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. Before leaving, we start the car and confirm that it's running properly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Lower Herne itself
Lower Herne is a coastal locality in Kent, situated near the city of Canterbury and close to the neighbouring villages of Herne and Herne Common. Lower Herne lies at an elevation of around 25 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Lower Herne is located approximately 55 miles from London, making it a relatively rural part of the South East region. Lower Herne has a small population of around 1616 residents.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Lower Herne included
Throughout CT postcodes, our teams covering Lower Herne — a coastal area — work the nearby places too, Herne Common and Hunters Forstal included. A postcode starting CT6 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Herne Bay Sports Hub, a lay-by on the way to Curtis Wood, a drive. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Three Birds Looking, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Lower Herne drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Kent.