Orchard Valley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Orchard Valley, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. 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.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Orchard Valley and Pedlinge run, with diesel for your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Orchard Valley: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Mill Fields Road before work, or in the car park outside The Red Lion Pub heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Hythe or the middle of Orchard Valley, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Burmarsh or a forecourt around Orchard Valley.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Sandling? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever in Kent, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Old London Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Orchard Valley already?
Short order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Esso, JET or another — the staff will usually help push your car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Orchard Valley? Then the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Orchard Valley sits under 3 miles from the M20; on it, take the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Orchard Valley.
What happens when our engineers arrive around Orchard Valley
By St Augustine's Catholic Primary School, close to Hythe Youth Centre or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Orchard Valley itself
Orchard Valley is a coastal suburban area in Kent, situated near the towns of Hythe and Saltwood, with Pennypot also nearby. Orchard Valley has a population of around 2687 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Orchard Valley sits at a low elevation of 13 metres, close to the coast and approximately 14 miles from Canterbury. Orchard Valley is also within commuting distance of London, being around 60 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains around Orchard Valley and across Kent
Being a residential suburb, Orchard Valley has the same vans as surrounding areas — Saltwood, Pennypot — right through CT postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting CT21 4 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Hythe Green, a side street close to Scandinavian Design: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of The Malthouse Arcade.
The short version for Orchard Valley people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.