AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lewes: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Around Lewes, finding it before your engine turns usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of current diesels seen round Lewes and Wallands Park carry a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
Lewes: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off High Street before work, or in the car park at Royal Oak on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it happens in Cliffe or the middle of Lewes, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Lewes or a driveway over in Cuilfail. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across East Sussex, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Fisher Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lewes?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Tesco, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away when asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Lewes.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then switch off. The next junction is where to come off if you are on the M23, under 25 miles from Lewes. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lewes.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in Lewes
By Western Road Community Primary School, near Lewes Crown Court or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before we go.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take about half an hour once we arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth checking your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Lewes and where it is
Lewes is a historic town in East Sussex, situated on the banks of the River Ouse at an elevation of 31 metres. Lewes lies approximately 44 miles south of London and 7.5 miles north of Brighton and Hove, with nearby neighbourhoods including Cliffe, Southover, and St Annes. Lewes has a population of around 14853 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Lewes is characterised by its compact town centre and surrounding residential areas.
Lewes and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Lewes is a riverside town, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Southover and St Annes among them, across the BN postcode area. Fastest of all: give a BN7 2 postcode for the van.
Shifting the car is not necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside Lewes Town Hall, in a lay-by heading to Southover Grange Gardens, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of War Memorial.
The short version for Lewes people
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around East Sussex.