Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broadwater: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Broadwater. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Broadwater and Lower Cokeham run, with diesel feeding your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Broadwater: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Kingsland Road before work, or in the car park outside Broadwater Working Mens Club on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to 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, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Broadwater or out in Sompting Abbotts.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in West Tarring or a forecourt around Broadwater.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — from East Worthing's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across West Sussex that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Penfold Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Broadwater?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Shell, Sainsbury or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive in Broadwater, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M23 — under 25 miles out of Broadwater — at the next junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Broadwater makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Brighton and Hove — so say about how far it went.
When our technicians turn up around Broadwater, what takes place?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Downsbrook Primary School, close to Broadwater Library or on your own driveway. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those replies decide the work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. Hence it matters more. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine 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; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Broadwater
Broadwater is a coastal suburban area in West Sussex, situated near the town of Worthing and approximately 9.8 miles from Brighton and Hove. Broadwater lies at a low elevation of around 6 metres, reflecting its proximity to the sea. Broadwater has a mix of housing types, but terraced housing is particularly prevalent in the area. Broadwater is also close to other nearby places, including Sompting Abbotts and East Worthing.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Broadwater included
Broadwater is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Worthing and East Worthing among them, across the BN postcode area. A postcode starting BN14 9 gets our van to you fastest.
The car stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Lyons Farm Open Space, a side street near Broadwater Baptist Church: our engineers drain it where it is. Guessing won't help behind St Mary's, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Broadwater motorists
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, wherever around West Sussex: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.