AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marine Town: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, when the motor has not run, it is drained and fully cleaned where the vehicle sits in Marine Town. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Marine Town and West Minster carry, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Marine Town: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Richmond Street before work, or in the car park at Heights of Alma on the way home.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. It's seconds, whether in Sheerness or right in the centre of Marine Town.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Scrapsgate or a forecourt around Marine Town, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Sheerness-On-Sea? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Unity Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently using the own spout.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Marine Town?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Tesco, Shell or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. If you are on your own driveway around Marine Town, leave the car where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Marine Town lies under 10 miles from the M2; there, take the next exit. A short hop across Marine Town is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Marine Town: what happens when our technicians turn up
The van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Sheppey Little Theatre, or by Richmond Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. No one heads out before you have heard the price over the phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. Hence it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need roughly half an hour after we arrive. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Marine Town
Marine Town is a coastal suburban area in Kent, situated near the mouth of the Medway estuary at an elevation of around 3 metres. Marine Town forms part of the wider conurbation around Sheerness and is close to other nearby places such as Mile Town and Blue Town. Marine Town is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock and is located approximately 7.6 miles from Southend-on-Sea.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Marine Town included
Mile Town and Blue Town are among the towns around Marine Town, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout ME postcodes. Fastest of all: give a ME12 2 postcode to the van.
The car doesn't need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Sheerness Roman Catholic Church St Henry & St Elizabeth, a lay-by on the way to Vincent Gardens, a driveway. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Sheerness County Youth Club & Activity Centre, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Marine Town people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Kent.