Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Forest Row: Why It Happens
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Forest Row, catching it before the engine turns normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading in advance? Then what follows covers how it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Quabrook, as well as Forest Row, carry on two liquids; the engine takes only your diesel. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Forest Row: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Station Road, or heading home in the car park at The Chequers.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new car.
No part 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. Whether it takes place in Highgate or the middle of Forest Row, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt in Forest Row or a drive out in Colemans Hatch. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from East Grinstead's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in East Sussex that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Lower Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Forest Row?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Tesco, the JET or somewhere else. Your own driveway around Forest Row is the place it stays.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Forest Row lies under 10 miles from the M23; on it, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Forest Row.
What happens when we turn up in Forest Row
Outside Forest Row Church of England Primary School and Nursery, near The Venue on the Green or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine this work and our quote. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. 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. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. 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 is included with many policies.
About Forest Row and where it is
Forest Row is a village situated in the riverside setting of the River Medway in East Sussex, with an elevation of around 65 metres. Forest Row lies approximately 29 miles south of London and 20 miles north of Brighton and Hove, near neighbouring communities such as Highgate and Ashurst Wood. Forest Row has a population of around 1978 residents, predominantly living in detached housing. Forest Row is surrounded by woodland and countryside, characteristic of the South East region.
AdBlue drains around Forest Row, and East Sussex beyond
Over RH postcodes, the teams covering Forest Row — a village — work the surrounding spots too, Ashurst Wood and Tompsets Bank included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting RH18 5.
The car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Forester's Green, a side street close to Forest Row Parish Council & Community Centre: we drain it where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of The Venu.
Forest Row motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across East Sussex.