AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Downside: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Downside. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels on the roads about Downside and Meads carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every filling station visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Downside: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Victoria Gardens, or at The Hurst Arms on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether in Upperton or bang in the centre of Downside.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Downside forecourt or a driveway out in Willingdon, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Eastbourne's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in East Sussex, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Green Street, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Downside?
Do not start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Power- Old Town Service Station, Esso or another — the staff will usually help push the car away, when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Downside, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M23 — under 50 miles out of Downside — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Downside.
What takes place when we arrive in Downside
By Motcombe Infants' School, close to Old Town Community Library or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those answers decide the work and the quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is drained and your system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run need roughly half an hour once we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Downside, briefly
Downside is a suburban area in East Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 17.7 miles from Brighton and Hove. Downside has a relatively low elevation of 43 metres and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Upperton and Ratton Village. Downside is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in the South East of England. Downside is also within commuting distance to London, being around 53.1 miles away.
Downside and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Ratton Village and Eastbourne are among the places near Downside, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout BN postcodes. A postcode starting BN20 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Victoria Gardens, a side street near Old Town Community Centre: we drain the car where it sits. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Victoria Baptist Church.
Downside people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, wherever across East Sussex: keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.