Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Quarter: Why It Occurs
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle is in The Quarter. Reading in advance? Then the rest explains why it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many modern diesels in Sinkhurst Green, like those in The Quarter, run on two liquids; the motor gets just your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in The Quarter: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
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 Pinnock Lane before work, or in the car park at The Kings Head on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. Staplehurst or the middle of The Quarter: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Knowles Hill or a forecourt in The Quarter, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Staplehurst.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Kent the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hanmer Way, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around The Quarter?
Short order, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs your pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Murco or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway around The Quarter, leave the car where it stands.
When your motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M20, under 10 miles from The Quarter. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Canterbury, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across The Quarter.
The Quarter: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Staplehurst School, close to All Saints or on your own drive. The answers settle the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is cleared and your system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About The Quarter and where it is
The Quarter is a suburban area in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 24 metres, and is located near the villages of Staplehurst and Marden Thorn. The Quarter sits approximately 38 miles from London and 24 miles from Canterbury, making it a commuter base for those working in the city. The Quarter has a population of around 1161 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. The Quarter is part of the wider landscape of the Weald of Kent, a region of rolling hills and woodland.
The Quarter and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
The Quarter is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Knox Bridge and Marden Thorn among them, across the TN postcode area. Give a postcode beginning TN12 0, and the van gets there fastest.
Your car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Staplehurst Library, a lay-by on the way to Iden Croft Herb Garden, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Staplehurst Village Centre? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
The short version for The Quarter people
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Kent.