Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sandgate: Why It Occurs
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Sandgate. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Sandgate and Cheriton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
Sandgate: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Military Road before work, or in the car park at The Ship Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar vehicles are next, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes seconds, whether in Coolinge or bang in the centre of Sandgate.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Sandgate forecourt or a driveway over in Horn Street, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Folkestone West, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Kent that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bybrook Field, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sandgate?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear if you ask. If you are on your own driveway around Sandgate, leave it where it stands.
Where the motor has run already, stop somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Come off the M20 — under 3 miles out of Sandgate — at the first junction. A short hop across Sandgate is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when we arrive around Sandgate
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Sandgate Primary School, near Other People's Photographs Bybrook Way or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle this work and our quote. On the phone call itself, you hear our price — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before we leave.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Sandgate, briefly
Sandgate is a coastal suburban area in Kent, situated near the town of Folkestone and close to the nearby places of Coolinge, Shorncliffe Camp, and Morehall. Sandgate has a population of approximately 3589 residents and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Sandgate sits at an elevation of 41 metres, overlooking the English Channel, and is located 62.5 miles from London and 14.3 miles from Canterbury.
AdBlue drains round Sandgate, and Kent beyond
Throughout CT postcodes, our teams covering Sandgate — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Morehall and Shorncliffe Camp among them. Quickest of all: give a CT20 3 postcode to our van.
Your car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by Sandgate Society, or a layby towards Sandgate Park and Sandgate Recreation Ground. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Hattie Jacques? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
The short version for Sandgate drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.