How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Kingsdown
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around West Kingsdown. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around West Kingsdown and East Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around West Kingsdown?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a driveway off Hever Avenue before work, or in the car park at The Gamecock on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether in Maplescombe or bang in the heart of West Kingsdown.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Knockmill or a forecourt in West Kingsdown.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Eynsford's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in Kent the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hever Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using its own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in West Kingsdown already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the pump. Your own driveway around West Kingsdown is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. West Kingsdown sits under a mile from the M20; there, use the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across West Kingsdown makes a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards London — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around West Kingsdown, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St. Edmund's Church of England Primary School, near West Kingsdown Library or on your own driveway. Those answers decide the work and our quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you've heard our quote by phone.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly. 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. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About West Kingsdown
West Kingsdown is a village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 159 metres, and is located approximately 19.8 miles from London. West Kingsdown has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the village is surrounded by nearby places such as Maplescombe, Knatts Valley, and Fawkham Green. West Kingsdown is a relatively small community with a population of around 3173 residents.
AdBlue drains round West Kingsdown, and Kent beyond
Knatts Valley and Fawkham Green are among the places near West Kingsdown, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over TN postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a TN15 6 postcode for our van.
The car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to West Kingsdown Parish Council Recreation Ground, a side street near St Edmund King and Martyr: we drain the car where it stands. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Brands Hatch Circuit, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For West Kingsdown drivers, the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever in Kent: keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.