Newington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle sits in Newington. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Newington and Haine run, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Newington: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Princes Avenue, or on the way home in the car park at The Windmill.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip begins, no part halts it. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Whitehall or right in the centre of Newington.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Chilton or a forecourt in Newington, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Ramsgate? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across Kent — a routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Bush Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Newington?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the BP, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway in Newington, leave it where it sits.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M20 — under 25 miles out of Newington — at the first junction. A short hop across Newington is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up around Newington, what happens?
Anywhere your car has stopped, whether outside Ramsgate Arts Primary School, near The Corner or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Those answers determine this work and our price, so we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. The filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Newington, for a moment
Newington is a suburban area in Kent, situated on the coast in the South East of England, with an elevation of around 47 metres. Newington lies approximately 14.5 miles from Canterbury and 66.7 miles from London, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Whitehall, Nethercourt, and Northwood. Newington has a population of around 8453 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Newington included
Newington is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Nethercourt and Northwood among them, across the CT postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting CT12 6.
No need to move the car. Wherever it sits — beside Newington Community Centre, in a layby heading to The Copse, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Christopher's Church? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Newington drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Kent.