St Dunstans: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In St Dunstans, catching it before the motor runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near St Dunstans and Northgate carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
St Dunstans: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off New Street, perhaps outside The Eight Bells on the way home after work.
Unfamiliar cars are next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, keeps on. Canterbury or the heart of St Dunstans: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around St Dunstans or a drive out in Harbledown. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark which belongs in which inlet just there.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Canterbury West, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Kent, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of St Dunstan's Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Dunstans already?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive around St Dunstans, leave the car where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. St Dunstans sits under 10 miles from the M2; there, take the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under a mile away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St Dunstans.
St Dunstans: what happens when our engineers get there
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Peter's Methodist Primary School, near St Dunstans Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Next our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we go.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run take roughly half an hour once we are there. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About St Dunstans and where it is
St Dunstans is a suburban area located on the riverside in Kent, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 9086 residents. St Dunstans sits near the city of Canterbury, approximately 0.5 miles away, and is part of the wider Canterbury urban area. St Dunstans is situated at an elevation of 24 metres, close to the River Stour and nearby places such as St Stephens and Hales Place.
AdBlue drains around St Dunstans, and Kent beyond
St Dunstans is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, St Stephens and Hales Place among them, across the CT postcode area. A postcode starting CT2 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Victoria Memorial Recreation Ground, a side street close to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. Guessing won't help at the back of Canterbury Italy Star Memorial, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
For St Dunstans motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere in Kent: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.