Bells Yew Green: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Bells Yew Green. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the motor — but many current diesels seen around Bells Yew Green and The Platt carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Bells Yew Green: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Hawkenbury Road, perhaps outside Brecknock Arms on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Bells Yew Green or out in Ely Grange.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Sleeches Cross or a forecourt in Bells Yew Green.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to your 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 — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Frant.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever in East Sussex the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Middle Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bells Yew Green?
Don't start your engine: that is how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. If you're on your own driveway around Bells Yew Green, leave the car where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Bells Yew Green lies under 15 miles from the M26; on it, take the first junction. A short hop across Bells Yew Green is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 50 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians turn up around Bells Yew Green
Our van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Bells Yew Green Chapel, or outside Frant Church of England Primary School. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those replies decide the work and our quote. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Then your 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 doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bells Yew Green itself
Bells Yew Green is a small village in East Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of 111 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Bells Yew Green lies near the villages of Ely Grange, Frant, and Hawkenbury, and is within commuting distance of Brighton and Hove. Bells Yew Green has a population of around 551 residents, who live in a rural setting with easy access to the surrounding countryside. Bells Yew Green is also relatively close to London, being approximately 33.5 miles from the capital.
Bells Yew Green and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout TN postcodes, our vans that cover Bells Yew Green — a rural village — work the nearby locations too, Hawkenbury and Frant among them. Fastest of all: give a TN3 9 postcode to the van.
Your car does not need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Bells Yew Green Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Higham Wood, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Alban's Church? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Bells Yew Green motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across East Sussex.