AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Upnor: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Lower Upnor. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels in Noke Street, like those in Lower Upnor, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Lower Upnor
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Galleon Way before work, or in the car park at The Ship heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Lower Upnor or out in Upper Upnor.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Lower Upnor forecourt or a drive over in Wainscott, take a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there 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.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Strood, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Kent, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cutter Close, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Lower Upnor?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself runs the pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at JET, Co-op or any forecourt will normally help to push your car away when asked. On your own drive around Lower Upnor? Then the car stays put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Lower Upnor sits under 5 miles from the M2; there, use the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Lower Upnor is less work than a run of under 15 miles to Southend-on-Sea, so say.
When we turn up in Lower Upnor, what occurs?
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Mary's Island Church of England (Aided) Primary School, near London Stones or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and quote. No one heads out before you have had our quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle gets tested. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Lower Upnor itself
Lower Upnor is a small village on the north bank of the River Medway in Kent, with a low elevation of around 3 metres above sea level. Lower Upnor sits near the coast, close to the nearby settlements of Upper Upnor and Chattenden, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Lower Upnor is located near the urban centre of Southend-on-Sea, but remains a distinct and separate community.
AdBlue drains in Lower Upnor and across Kent
Chattenden and Broad Street are among the towns around Lower Upnor, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, over ME postcodes. Give a postcode that starts ME2 4, and our van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near St Philip & St James, or a layby on the way to Hoo Common. Tricky to explain, like the back of Upnor Castle? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
For Lower Upnor people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Kent.