Stonestreet Green: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Stonestreet Green, catching it before the engine turns usually leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Here in advance? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but many modern diesels seen round Stonestreet Green and The Forstal carry another liquid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Stonestreet Green
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Calleywell Lane before work, or in the car park outside Walnut Tree Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Clap Hill or the middle of Stonestreet Green, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Stonestreet Green forecourt or a drive out in Aldington Frith, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Westenhanger's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Kent that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside Goldwell Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Do not go on to step five.
Stonestreet Green: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the John Childs Garages, the Tesco or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Stonestreet Green is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Stonestreet Green lies under a mile from the M20; there, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Stonestreet Green.
Our arrival around Stonestreet Green, and what occurs next
Outside Aldington Primary School, near Aldington Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because those replies decide the work and the price. During the phone call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of anything else.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. We don't go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Stonestreet Green itself
Stonestreet Green is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Kent, with a low elevation of around 45 metres. Stonestreet Green lies near several other small settlements, including Clap Hill, Aldington, and Broad Oak, and is approximately 13.6 miles from Canterbury. Stonestreet Green has a population of around 507 people, who mostly reside in detached houses. Stonestreet Green is also relatively far from London, at a distance of 54.2 miles.
AdBlue drains around Stonestreet Green and across Kent
As a rural hamlet, Stonestreet Green has the same vans as surrounding places — Aldington, Broad Oak — right across TN postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a TN25 7 postcode for our van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Wherever it stands — near Dreamshapes Crafts, on a lay-by en route to Backhouse Wood, at home — that's where it gets drained. Guessing doesn't help at the back of St Martins Church, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Stonestreet Green drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Kent, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.