AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tunstall: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands in Tunstall, is normally all it needs if caught before the engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Tunstall and Highsted run, with diesel for your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. It is in that gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Tunstall
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Tunstall Road before work, or in the car park outside Beauty Of Bath on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Harmans Corner or the middle of Tunstall: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Sittingbourne or a forecourt around Tunstall.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 Sittingbourne.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Kent that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hales Road, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tunstall?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car 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 the fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car clear if asked. Your own drive in Tunstall is where it stays.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. Come off the M2 — under 3 miles out of Tunstall — at the next junction. A short hop across Tunstall is a smaller job than a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Tunstall, and what occurs next
Our van reaches the car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Tunstall Church, or by Tunstall Church of England (Aided) Primary School. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the 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 the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — clean diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle gets tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Tunstall, for a moment
Tunstall is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 53 metres, and is located near the villages of Harmans Corner and Hearts Delight. Tunstall lies approximately 14.8 miles from Southend-on-Sea and 38.7 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community. Tunstall has a population of around 778 residents, who mostly live in semi-detached houses. Tunstall is also close to the village of Borden, and is part of the wider Kent countryside.
Tunstall and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Hearts Delight and Borden are among the towns around Tunstall, a rural hamlet, that the same teams cover, over ME postcodes. A postcode starting ME9 8 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Tunstall Village Memorial Hall, a lay-by on the way to King Georges Playing Fields, a driveway. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Sittingbourne Cemetery, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Tunstall motorists: the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Kent.