Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingston by Sea: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits around Kingston by Sea. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your motor — yet many current diesels driven about Kingston by Sea and Southwick carry a second liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kingston by Sea: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Eastern Avenue, or on the way home in the car park at The Duke of Wellington.
Unfamiliar cars come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Shoreham-by-Sea or the heart of Kingston by Sea: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Mile Oak or a forecourt in Kingston by Sea.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Shoreham-By-Sea? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Sussex that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside Eastern Close on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kingston by Sea already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Tesco or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Kingston by Sea.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Kingston by Sea lies under 25 miles from the M23; there, take the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Kingston by Sea is less work than a run of under 10 miles towards Brighton and Hove, so say.
What occurs when our technicians get there around Kingston by Sea
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Esteem, or outside St Peter's Catholic Primary School. The replies determine this work and our quote, so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. 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 here than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. The motor is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take about half an hour once we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Kingston by Sea, briefly
Kingston by Sea is a coastal suburban area in West Sussex, situated near the mouth of the River Adur and adjacent to Shoreham Beach. Kingston by Sea has a low elevation of around 4 metres, reflecting its seaside location. Kingston by Sea is part of the larger urban area surrounding Brighton and Hove, with which it has strong transport links.
AdBlue drains round Kingston by Sea, and West Sussex beyond
Shoreham Beach and Old Shoreham are among the places around Kingston by Sea, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over BN postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a BN43 6 postcode to the van.
The car doesn't need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Ham Recreation Ground, a side street close to Shoreham Free Church: our engineers drain it where it is. Tricky to explain, like the back of P.C. Jeffrey Tooley? Close to a county line? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
For Kingston by Sea drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across West Sussex.