How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Street
Stop reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around South Street, finding it before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels seen round South Street and Harvel carry a second fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around South Street?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Wrotham Road before work, or in the car park at The Cricketers Inn heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor 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 tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of South Street or out in Culverstone Green.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a South Street forecourt or a driveway out in Meopham Green, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Meopham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never rushed by Chapmans Hill at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the own spout.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
South Street: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Texaco, Gulf or another forecourt will usually help pushing the vehicle clear when asked. At home in South Street? Then your car remains put.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. Come off the M26 — under 3 miles out of South Street — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across South Street is less a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Southend-on-Sea, and so say.
Our arrival in South Street, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Culverstone Green Primary School, near Culverstone Community Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters 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. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About South Street
South Street is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 161 metres, and is located approximately 23 miles from London. South Street comprises predominantly detached housing and has a population of around 680 residents. South Street is near other local places such as Culverstone Green and New Street, and is also close to David Street. South Street sits within the wider South East region of England, near the city of Southend-on-Sea.
South Street and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
New Street and David Street are among the towns near South Street, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over DA postcodes. A postcode starting DA13 0 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not necessary. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Hodsoll Street and Ridley Village Hall, or a lay-by on the way to Meopham Green. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Harvel Cricket Club? Close to a border? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
In short, for South Street people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.