AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastbourne: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Eastbourne. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Eastbourne and Harewood Park carry, with diesel for the motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler on every tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
Eastbourne: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Eastbourne Crescent, or heading home in the car park at Pontefract Sport And Social Club.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Willow Park or the heart of Eastbourne: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Eastbourne forecourt or a driveway out in Carleton, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — from Pontefract Baghill's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in West Yorkshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Heather Drive on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Eastbourne already?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things starts. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Shell, Murco or another — the attendants will usually help roll your car clear, if you ask. At home in Eastbourne? Then the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. Eastbourne lies under a mile from the A1(M); there, take the first junction. A short hop across Eastbourne is a smaller job than a run towards Wakefield, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers turn up around Eastbourne
The van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Battle of Chequer Field, or by Cherry Tree Academy. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you've had our quote over the phone.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
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 policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Eastbourne, for a moment
Eastbourne is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 8.7 miles from Wakefield and 158.4 miles from London. Eastbourne sits at an elevation of around 55 metres, characterised by semi-detached housing and a mix of local amenities. Eastbourne is located near other residential areas, including Willow Park, Grove Town, and Chequerfield, and is home to a population of around 2752 people. Eastbourne forms part of the wider Wakefield urban area, with easy access to local services and facilities.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Eastbourne included
Grove Town and Chequerfield are among the towns near Eastbourne, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over WF postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting WF8 2.
The car stays where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Harewood Park, a side street close to St Mary's Community Centre: we drain the car where it is. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Church of the Holy Family.
Eastbourne drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across West Yorkshire.