South Willesborough: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around South Willesborough. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around South Willesborough and Finberry carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around South Willesborough: how it occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Gladstone Road before work, or in the car park at The Albion on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of South Willesborough or out in New Town.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in South Ashford or a forecourt around South Willesborough, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- On many vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Ashford International? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Cudworth Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out step five entirely.
South Willesborough: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — BP, Esso or any other — the attendants will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. Your own drive in South Willesborough is where it should stay.
When your motor has run already, pull over safely then turn it off. Leave the M20 — under a mile out of South Willesborough — at the first exit. A short hop across South Willesborough is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in South Willesborough
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, whether by East Stour Primary School, beside The Swan Centre or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. Hence it counts more. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run take about half an hour once our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About South Willesborough
South Willesborough is a suburban area situated on the River Great Stour in Kent, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. South Willesborough sits at an elevation of 37 metres, close to the nearby settlements of New Town and Sevington. South Willesborough is located near the city of Canterbury, which is 13 miles away, and is also within commuting distance to London, 51 miles to the west. South Willesborough has a population of approximately 5634 residents.
AdBlue drains around South Willesborough and across Kent
Over TN postcodes, our vans covering South Willesborough — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Willesborough and Sevington included. Fastest of all: give a TN24 0 postcode for the van.
No need to move the vehicle. Wherever it sits — beside M&S Outlet, on a lay-by heading to South Willesborough Park, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Guessing won't help behind St. Mary the Virgin, Willesborough, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
South Willesborough drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Kent.