Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burgess Hill
Stop reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine hasn't run, it is drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits around Burgess Hill. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many newer diesels seen around Burgess Hill and Goddards Green carry a second liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Burgess Hill
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Lower Church Road before work, or in the car park at The Signal Box on the way home.
New-to-you cars come second, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. St Johns Common or the middle of Burgess Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt in Burgess Hill or a driveway over in Ditchling Common. A few seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of motors, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from the nearest station's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around West Sussex, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Crescent Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising 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 once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Burgess Hill?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at BP, Shell or any forecourt will usually help to push the car away when asked. If you're on your own drive around Burgess Hill, leave it where it sits.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M23 — under 10 miles out of Burgess Hill — at the first junction. A short hop across Burgess Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers turn up around Burgess Hill
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School, close to St John the Evangelist or on your own drive. The answers decide this work and our quote, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our technicians start the car and confirm that it is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Burgess Hill, for a moment
Burgess Hill is a town in West Sussex, situated approximately 38 miles south of London and 9 miles north of Brighton and Hove. Burgess Hill sits in a relatively low-lying area, with an average elevation of around 40 metres, and is surrounded by nearby places such as St Johns Common and Worlds End. Burgess Hill has a population of around 26,000 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Burgess Hill is also close to other local areas, including Abbotsford.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Burgess Hill included
Throughout RH postcodes, the teams covering Burgess Hill — a town — work the nearby places too, Abbotsford and Worlds End included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting RH15 9.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Wherever it stands — near Burgess Hill Theatre, on a lay-by heading to St John's Park, on a drive — that is where it is drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of War Memeorial, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Burgess Hill people
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever around West Sussex: keep the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.