How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Teynham
Leave your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Teynham, finding it before your motor turns usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads about Teynham and Radfield carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Teynham: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Frognal Gardens, perhaps outside Dover Castle on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: an unfamiliar vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Cellarhill or the middle of Teynham: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Teynham forecourt or a driveway over in Teynham Street, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in your 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 never in a rush beside London Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Teynham?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Norton Cross Service Station, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Teynham.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M2 — under 3 miles out of Teynham — at 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 Teynham.
When our engineers get there in Teynham, what occurs?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Teynham Parochial Church of England Primary School, near Teynham Village Hall or on your own drive. We ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies settle the work and our quote. Nobody sets off before you have heard the price by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears away unaided, however long it is left. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your car. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Teynham
Teynham is a village in Kent, situated near the coast and approximately 12 miles from Canterbury. Teynham has a population of around 1766 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Teynham sits at an elevation of 19 metres, close to the nearby places of Cellarhill, Barrow Green, and Bogle. Teynham is also within commuting distance to London, being around 41.9 miles away.
Teynham and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Teynham is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Barrow Green and Bogle among them, across the ME postcode area. A postcode starting ME9 9 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains put. Wherever it sits — beside St Mary, on a lay-by en route to Teynham Playing Fields, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help behind St Peter & St Paul, on a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
For Teynham motorists, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Kent.