Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clive Vale: Why It Occurs
Keep the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Clive Vale, finding it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Broomsgrove, like those in Clive Vale, run on two fluids; the motor takes just the diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Clive Vale: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Athelstan Road, or heading home in the car park at Ashburnham arms.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, keeps on. Belmont or the heart of Clive Vale: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Old Town or a forecourt in Clive Vale.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many motors mark which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Ore, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in East Sussex, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Harold Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Clive Vale?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Texaco or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Your own drive in Clive Vale is where it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you are on the M20, under 25 miles from Clive Vale. Distance counts — a quick hop across Clive Vale is a smaller job than heading under 50 miles towards Brighton and Hove — so say roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers get there around Clive Vale
Outside All Saints CofE Junior Academy, close to Social Club or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and if it's run — so we ask. Nobody heads out until you've had the price over the phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes out on its own, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running properly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe 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. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Clive Vale itself
Clive Vale is a suburban area in East Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 69 metres above sea level. Clive Vale lies within the larger urban area of Hastings, close to nearby places such as Belmont and High Wickham. Clive Vale has a population of around 5828 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Clive Vale is also relatively close to the city of Brighton and Hove, which is about 32.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains across East Sussex, Clive Vale included
Clive Vale is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, High Wickham and Halton among them, across the TN postcode area. Fastest of all: give a TN35 5 postcode for our van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Halton Baptist Church, a lay-by on the way to Ecclesbourne Glen, a drive. Assuming doesn't help behind The Salvation Army, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
In short, for Clive Vale motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever across East Sussex: switch the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.