Fox Hill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Fox Hill, catching it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. 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 motor
Plenty of modern diesels in Bolnore, as well as Fox Hill, run on two fluids; your motor gets just your diesel. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Fox Hill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Weald Rise, or at Fox and Hounds on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a new vehicle.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Lunces Common or the heart of Fox Hill: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Franklands Village or a forecourt around Fox Hill.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is 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 outside Haywards Heath, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever across West Sussex the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Fox Hill, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Fox Hill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Texaco, Shell or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car away if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Fox Hill.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Fox Hill sits under 10 miles from the M23; on it, use the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Fox Hill makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Brighton and Hove — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in Fox Hill, and what occurs next
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Princess Royal Swimming Pool, or outside St Wilfrid's CofE Primary School. Those replies determine the work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. 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. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before leaving.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Fox Hill and where it is
Fox Hill is a suburban area situated near the River Adur in West Sussex, with an elevation of around 61 metres. Fox Hill lies within the South East region, approximately 36 miles from London and 11 miles from Brighton and Hove. Fox Hill is characterised by its semi-detached housing and proximity to nearby places such as Lunces Common and Bolnore Village. Fox Hill has a population of around 4249 residents.
AdBlue drains about Fox Hill, and West Sussex beyond
Being a residential suburb, Fox Hill has the same vans as nearby areas — Bolnore Village, Haywards Heath — all the way across RH postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RH16 4.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. Wherever it sits — beside Church of the Ascension, on a layby en route to Anscombe Wood, at home — that's where it is cleared. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Mid Sussex Islamic Centre And Masjid, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Fox Hill people
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across West Sussex.