Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Singleton: Why It Happens
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, if your motor has not run, it is emptied and fully purged where your vehicle is around Singleton. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place 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 Singleton and Beaver run, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Singleton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Hoxton Close, or heading home in the car park outside Singleton Barn.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 once it has started. Whether it takes place in Great Chart or the middle of Singleton, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Stanhope or a forecourt around Singleton, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On many motors, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Ashford International? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Kent, follow this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine off, and never rushed by Aske's Court on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Singleton?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — BP, eg or another — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Singleton is the place it should stay.
Already run? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. On the M20, under 3 miles from Singleton, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Singleton.
Singleton: what takes place when our engineers turn up
By Great Chart Primary School, close to Singleton Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the replies set the work and quote. Nobody heads out before you have had the price by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel 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. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running smoothly.
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 working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Singleton and where it is
Singleton is a suburban area in Kent, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 44 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Singleton is located near several other places, including Great Chart, Brookfield, and Chilmington Green, and is approximately 14.2 miles from Canterbury. Singleton has a population of around 6104 residents and is about 48.8 miles from London. Singleton sits in the South East region of England, with the River Great Stour flowing nearby.
AdBlue drains round Singleton, and Kent beyond
Over TN postcodes, our vans covering Singleton — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Chilmington Green and Brookfield included. A postcode starting TN23 5 gets our van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Great Chart Wood, a side street near Grace Fellowship Ashford: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Guessing won't help behind Singleton Environment Centre, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
For Singleton motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Kent.