AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broadfield: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Broadfield, catching it before your motor turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels around Pease Pottage, as well as Broadfield, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Broadfield: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car 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 driveway off Creasys Drive before work, or in the car park at New Moon on the way home.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have 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 pour after it has started. Buchan Hill or the heart of Broadfield: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Southgate or a forecourt in Broadfield, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Crawley? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is across West Sussex — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Pelham Drive on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Broadfield?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Esso, Shell or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear when asked. Your own drive in Broadfield is where it stays.
When your engine has run already, stop somewhere safe and turn the car off. Broadfield lies under a mile from the M23; there, use the next exit. A short hop across Broadfield is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive around Broadfield, what occurs?
By Seymour Primary School, close to Broadfield Library or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. Once your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Broadfield
Broadfield is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated near the River Adur and close to the South Downs National Park. Broadfield sits at an elevation of around 98 metres, with views of the surrounding countryside and the nearby Buchan Hill. Broadfield is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Broadfield is located near other local suburbs, including Bewbush and Gossops Green.
Broadfield and West Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout RH postcodes, the vans that cover Broadfield — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Gossops Green and Bewbush included. Quickest of all: quote a RH11 9 postcode to the van.
There's no need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Target Hill Local Nature Reserve, a side street near Broadfield Community Centre: our technicians drain it where it is. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Christ The Lord, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Broadfield people
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever across West Sussex: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.