Southernden: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Southernden, finding it before your engine turns normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels on the roads about Southernden and Eastwood carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Southernden
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Southernden Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Swifts Green or the middle of Southernden, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Potters Forstal or a forecourt around Southernden, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Headcorn? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever around Kent, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Grigg Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Southernden already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Texaco, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive around Southernden, leave the vehicle where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. The next exit means the place to come off when you're on the M20, under 5 miles from Southernden. A short hop across Southernden is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Southernden, and what happens next
Wherever your car came to rest, be it by Ulcombe Church of England Primary School, beside Headcorn Airfield Royal Canadian and United States Air Forces or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of the 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Southernden itself
Southernden is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Kent, with an elevation of 29 metres above sea level. Southernden lies near the villages of Swifts Green and Grigg, and is approximately 19 miles from Canterbury. Southernden is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Southernden is also relatively close to London, at a distance of around 41 miles.
AdBlue drains about Southernden, and Kent beyond
Being a rural hamlet, Southernden shares its vans surrounding places — Grigg, Broadstone — all the way through TN postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a TN27 9 postcode for our van.
There's no need to shift the car. Anywhere it stands — beside The Big Cat Sanctuary, on a layby en route to Woodsden Wood, at home — that's where it is cleared. Guessing doesn't help behind Grafty Green Village Hall, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
For Southernden drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Kent.