Sandwich: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where the car sits around Sandwich, is usually what it takes when caught before the engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many modern diesels seen about Sandwich and Felderland hold another fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Sandwich
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Market Street before work, or in the car park outside The Fleur de Lis heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new motor.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Poulders Gardens or the middle of Sandwich: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Worth or a forecourt around Sandwich.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Kent — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Delf Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sandwich already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Gulf, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help push your car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Sandwich? Then your car remains put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit means where to leave when you are on the M20, under 15 miles from Sandwich. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Sandwich is less work than a trip of under 15 miles towards Canterbury, and so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers get there in Sandwich
By Sandwich Infant School, near St. Peters Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before we go.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Sandwich, for a moment
Sandwich is a small town on the coast of Kent, situated near the River Stour and close to several nearby places including Poulders Gardens and Great Stonar. Sandwich sits at a low elevation of around 5 metres above sea level, looking out over the coastal landscape. Sandwich has a population of approximately 4477 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Sandwich is located near the city of Canterbury, which is about 11 miles away.
Sandwich and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Sandwich is a coastal town, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Stone Cross and Great Stonar among them, across the CT postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning CT13 9, and our van arrives fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Butts, a side street near Sandwich Library: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Tricky to explain, like the back of Sandwich Market (Thursday only)? By a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
Sandwich drivers: the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Kent.