Broad Oak: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not turned, it is drained and fully flushed where your vehicle sits around Broad Oak. Here in advance? In that case what follows explains why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the engine — yet many current diesels seen about Broad Oak and Brede carry a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Broad Oak
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Udimore Road before work, or in the car park outside The Broad Oak heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. Whether it takes place in Goatham Green or the middle of Broad Oak, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Broad Oak forecourt or a drive over in Beckley Furnace, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Doleham? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is around East Sussex — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of King Wood Hill.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Broad Oak?
Short list, then. First: the engine stays off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the JET, the Valero or somewhere else. On your own drive around Broad Oak? So the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next exit is the place to come off if you are on the M20, under 25 miles from Broad Oak. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Broad Oak is less work than a trip of under 50 miles towards Canterbury, and so tell us.
Broad Oak: what occurs when we get there
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Brede Primary School, close to Trinity Methodist Church or on your own driveway. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since the answers settle this work and our price. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it is left. After your filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Broad Oak and where it is
Broad Oak is a rural village in East Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of around 93 metres. Broad Oak lies near several small settlements, including Goatham Green and Cackle Street, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Broad Oak is also within commuting distance of larger cities, with London approximately 50 miles to the northwest and Canterbury around 31 miles to the east. Broad Oak remains a small, residential community with a population of around 1237 people.
AdBlue drains around Broad Oak, and East Sussex beyond
Being a rural village, Broad Oak has the same vans as surrounding areas — Cackle Street, Chitcombe — all the way across TN postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TN31 6.
No need to shift the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by Brede Village Hall, or a layby on the way to Well Wood. Assuming doesn't help behind Saint George, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Broad Oak people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in East Sussex.