Abingworth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car stands around Abingworth, is usually what it takes if found before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of newer diesels seen round Abingworth and West Chiltington Common hold another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Abingworth: how it takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Furze Common Road before work, or in the car park outside The White Lion Inn heading home: that is 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 car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing stops it. Smock Alley or the heart of Abingworth: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in West Chiltington or a forecourt around Abingworth, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- 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.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- 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.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Pulborough.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Sussex that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Storrington Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Abingworth: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Power, the Esso or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Abingworth.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. On the M23, under 15 miles from Abingworth, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Abingworth.
When our technicians arrive in Abingworth, what happens?
Outside Thakeham Primary School, near William Penn Stone or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and our price depend on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Abingworth itself
Abingworth is a small hamlet in West Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of around 45 metres. Abingworth lies near the villages of Thakeham and Warminghurst, and is close to Smock Alley. Abingworth is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Abingworth is located approximately 15 miles from Brighton and Hove, and around 41 miles from London.
Abingworth and West Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Thakeham and Warminghurst are among the towns near Abingworth, a rural hamlet, that the same vans cover, throughout RH postcodes. Quickest of all: give a RH20 3 postcode for the van.
No need to shift the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Thakeham Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Abingworth Football Ground, a drive. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Kingdom Hall.
For Abingworth people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across West Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.