New Romney: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around New Romney, catching it before your motor runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads round New Romney and Old Romney carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
New Romney: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Ashford Road before work, or in the car park at Smugglers' Alehouse on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange car.
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. Littlestone-on-Sea or the heart of New Romney: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a New Romney forecourt or a drive out in St Marys Bay, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark which goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Appledore (Kent)? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light appears — wherever it is in Kent — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around New Romney already?
Do not start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Usher Motors, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own driveway around New Romney, leave it where it sits.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the M20, under 10 miles from New Romney. Distance counts — a quick hop across New Romney makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Canterbury — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians turn up around New Romney, what takes place?
Outside St Nicholas Church of England Primary Academy, close to New Romney Town Council or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers decide both work and price. No one sets off until you have had the price over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run take roughly half an hour once we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About New Romney
New Romney is a small coastal town in Kent, situated on the Romney Marshes near the English Channel. New Romney has a low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level and is close to the nearby settlements of Littlestone-on-Sea and Greatstone-on-Sea. New Romney is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located approximately 21 miles from Canterbury. New Romney remains a popular residential centre with a population of around 4941 people.
AdBlue drains about New Romney, and Kent beyond
As a coastal town, New Romney has the same vans as surrounding areas — Greatstone-on-Sea, St Mary in the Marsh — right through TN postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting TN28 8 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Playpark, a side street near St Nicholas Church: our technicians drain it where it is. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of New Romney Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for New Romney drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Kent: switch the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.