Thundersley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Thundersley, is normally all it needs when caught before your engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven round Thundersley and Daws Heath hold another liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Thundersley
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Kenneth Road, or on the way home in the car park outside White Hart.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. New Thundersley or the middle of Thundersley: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Thundersley or a driveway out in Hopes Green. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in which inlet right there.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Benfleet's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Essex, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hart Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Thundersley: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains off. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive around Thundersley is the place it should stay.
When your motor has been run already, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. The next exit means where to come off if you're on the M25, under 15 miles from Thundersley. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Thundersley.
Our arrival in Thundersley, and what takes place next
By Kingston Primary School, near St Peters, Thundersley or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out before you've had the price over the phone.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Thundersley itself
Thundersley is a locality in Essex, situated approximately 30 miles east of London and 6 miles northwest of Southend-on-Sea. Thundersley sits in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of around 78 metres, surrounded by other nearby places such as New Thundersley, Tarpots, and South Benfleet. Thundersley has a population of around 2169 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Thundersley and across Essex
Over SS postcodes, the teams covering Thundersley — a small village — work the nearby spots too, South Benfleet and Tarpots included. A postcode starting SS7 3 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Thundersley Common, a side street close to Great Tarpots Library: our technicians drain it where it is. Tricky to explain, like the back of St George, Benfleet New Thundersley? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Thundersley motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Essex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.