Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mile Oak: Why It Occurs
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Mile Oak. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single fluid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Mile Oak and Castle Hill run, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles 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 petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Mile Oak?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Mile Oak Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Mile Oak or out in Hill Top.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Mile Oak or a driveway out in Paddock Wood. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Paddock Wood.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Kent that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Knowle Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- 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 is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Mile Oak?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Mile Oak.
Where your engine has run by now, pull over safely and switch it off. Mile Oak lies under 10 miles from the M20; on it, use the next junction. A short hop across Mile Oak is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Mile Oak: what occurs when our engineers get there
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Leigh Academy Paddock Wood, near Putlands Leisure Centre or at home, our van travels to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide this work and our quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we go, our technicians start it and check that it is running correctly.
Using 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 take about half an hour after we arrive. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Mile Oak
Mile Oak is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 30 metres. Mile Oak lies near several other small settlements, including Hill Top, The Crook, and Pearsons Green, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Mile Oak is located approximately 32.8 miles from London and 29 miles from the city of Southend-on-Sea, making it a rural outpost in the South East of England. Mile Oak has a population of around 548 residents, who live in a quiet, rural environment.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Mile Oak included
Being a rural hamlet, Mile Oak has the same vans as nearby places — The Crook, Pearsons Green — right through TN postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting TN12 6 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Christmas tree farm, a side street close to Paddock Wood Town Council: we drain the car where it stands. Guessing won't help at the back of Castle, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
For Mile Oak drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Kent.