Upper Deal: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Upper Deal. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Upper Deal and Great Mongeham run, with diesel feeding your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upper Deal: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Addelam Road before work, or in the car park at The Farrier heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a new car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. It's seconds, whether out in Mill Hill or right in the heart of Upper Deal.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Deal or a forecourt around Upper Deal.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Deal's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere across Kent, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush by Tormore Mews on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — confirm the diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upper Deal?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Esso or anywhere else. At home around Upper Deal? So your car stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Upper Deal lies under 15 miles from the M20; on it, take the next exit. A short hop across Upper Deal is a smaller job than a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Upper Deal: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Wherever your car has stopped, whether outside Warden House Primary School, beside Deal Parish Church of St. Leonard's or at home, the van comes to it. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set the work and quote. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — before anything else.
Then that tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Upper Deal itself
Upper Deal is a suburban area located on the coast of Kent, with an elevation of around 18 metres above sea level. Upper Deal sits near the town of Deal, close to other nearby places such as Mill Hill, Sholden, and Middle Deal. Upper Deal is characterized by its predominant semi-detached housing stock and is situated approximately 13.8 miles from the city of Canterbury. Upper Deal is also within commuting distance to London, being around 68.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Upper Deal and across Kent
Over CT postcodes, our vans that cover Upper Deal — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Middle Deal and Sholden among them. A postcode starting CT14 9 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. We drain it where it is — a side street close to St Nicholas, a lay-by on the way to Welfare Sports Ground, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of The Fitness Mix Cycling Studio? Close to a border? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Upper Deal motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere in Kent: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.