How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in High Wickham
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In High Wickham, catching it before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Belmont, as well as High Wickham, carry on two liquids; your motor gets only your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
High Wickham: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Belmont Road, or on the way home in the car park at The Stag Inn.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Old Town or the middle of High Wickham, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Clive Vale or a forecourt around High Wickham.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — from Ore's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around East Sussex the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush beside Harold Road at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The two behind one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around High Wickham?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around High Wickham, leave the car where it stands.
Already run? Pull over when it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means the place to leave if you're on the M20, under 25 miles from High Wickham. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across High Wickham.
Our arrival in High Wickham, and what occurs next
Wherever the car has stopped, whether by Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, beside Market Cross or at home, the van travels to it. The replies settle the work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. During the call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears away unaided. That is why it counts more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About High Wickham, briefly
High Wickham is a suburban area in East Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 41 metres above sea level. High Wickham lies within commuting distance of London and is closer to the city of Brighton and Hove, with nearby areas including Old Town and Halton. High Wickham has a population of around 6954 people and is characterised by its predominance of terraced housing. High Wickham is part of the larger urban landscape of the South East region.
High Wickham and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Halton and Broomsgrove are among the towns around High Wickham, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over TN postcodes. A postcode starting TN35 5 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a street near All Saints Church, or a layby towards All Saints Wood. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St George's Churchyard? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
High Wickham people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across East Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.