AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Marys Bay: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In St Marys Bay, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many modern diesels driven around St Marys Bay and Littlestone-on-Sea hold another fluid as well. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around St Marys Bay?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
On a driveway off Cedar Crescent before work, or in the car park outside Bailiffs Sergeant heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a new car.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of St Marys Bay or out in High Knocke.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a St Marys Bay forecourt or a driveway out in New Romney, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Westenhanger, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Kent, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Maple Drive, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its own spout.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around St Marys Bay already?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at the nearest petrol station, Esso or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away when you ask. Your own driveway in St Marys Bay is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. St Marys Bay sits under 10 miles from the M20; there, use the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across St Marys Bay is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles to Canterbury, so say.
When our technicians arrive in St Marys Bay, what happens?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside Dymchurch Primary School, beside All Saints or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the replies determine this work and our quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. Your engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About St Marys Bay and where it is
St Marys Bay is a small coastal village in Kent, situated on the Romney Marshes near the towns of Dymchurch and St Mary in the Marsh. St Marys Bay has a low elevation of around 1 metre above sea level, making it a flat and low-lying area. St Marys Bay is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located approximately 19 miles from Canterbury and 59 miles from London. St Marys Bay remains a quiet residential community with a population of around 1916 people.
St Marys Bay and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
As a coastal village, St Marys Bay shares its vans surrounding areas — Dymchurch, St Mary in the Marsh — all the way through TN postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting TN29 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving your car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to St Mary's Bay, a lay-by on the way to Littlestone Golf Club, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Dymchurch, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For St Marys Bay motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in Kent: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.