Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Balcombe: Why It Occurs
Leave the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Balcombe. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads about Balcombe and Ardingly carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two together under one flap. Diesel gets filled at each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Balcombe: how it takes place
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 altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off The Broadway before work, or in the car park outside Half Moon Pub on the way home.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Balcombe Lane or the middle of Balcombe: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Staplefield or a forecourt around Balcombe, 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 doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in West Sussex the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Bramble Hill.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Balcombe already?
Short order, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Balcombe.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M23, under 3 miles from Balcombe, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Balcombe is less a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Brighton and Hove, and so say.
What takes place when our technicians arrive around Balcombe
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Balcombe Cofe Primary School, close to Victory Hall or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies settle this work and our price. The quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Before leaving, our engineers start the car and confirm that it's running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Balcombe, briefly
Balcombe is a village situated in the riverside setting of the Ouse Valley in West Sussex, with an elevation of around 105 metres. Balcombe lies approximately 30.9 miles south of London and 16.3 miles north of Brighton and Hove, near neighbouring areas such as Balcombe Lane and Little London. Balcombe has a population of around 1166 residents, predominantly living in detached housing. Balcombe remains a quiet village community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains round Balcombe, and West Sussex beyond
Little London and Brook Street are among the towns around Balcombe, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout RH postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a RH17 6 postcode to the van.
The car doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it stands — near St Mary, Balcombe, in a layby heading to Balcombe Recreation Ground, at home — that's where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Wings Museum, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
In short, for Balcombe drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere in West Sussex: keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.