AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ware Street: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Ware Street. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Ware Street and Grove Green run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ware Street: how it happens
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Sandy Mount before work, or in the car park outside Butchers Block at the Bell on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Roseacre or the middle of Ware Street, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Willington or a forecourt around Ware Street, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Bearsted, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Kent that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Mount Pleasant Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Step five stays out.
Ware Street: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, Shell or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle clear when asked. Your own driveway around Ware Street is where it stays.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M20 — under a mile out of Ware Street — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ware Street.
Ware Street: what happens when our engineers get there
Our van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Bearsted Library, or by Roseacre Junior School. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. Nobody heads out before you have heard the price over the phone.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, however long it is left. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ware Street and where it is
Ware Street is a suburban area in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 61 metres, and forms part of the wider commuter belt around London. Ware Street lies near several other small settlements, including Roseacre, Weavering Street, and Bearsted, and is within reach of the major urban centre of Southend-on-Sea. Ware Street has a population of around 2934 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
Ware Street and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Over ME postcodes, the vans that cover Ware Street — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Bearsted and Weavering Street included. Quote a postcode that starts ME14 4, and the van gets there quickest.
The car does not need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to King George V Memorial Hall, a lay-by on the way to Bearsted Golf Club, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Holy Cross Church.
For Ware Street drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Kent.