Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Loxwood
Stop here for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's drained and fully flushed where the vehicle is in Loxwood. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around Loxwood and Roundstreet Common carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
Loxwood: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off High Street, or at The Onslow Arms on the way home that evening.
New-to-you vehicles come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
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 Ifold or the middle of Loxwood, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Tismans Common or a forecourt around Loxwood, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many vehicles show which belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — from Billingshurst's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is around West Sussex — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Guildford Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Loxwood?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the EG On the Move, ask the staff to help roll the car away from the pump. At home around Loxwood? Then your car stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M23, under 15 miles from Loxwood, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Chichester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Loxwood.
When our engineers get there in Loxwood, what takes place?
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Loxwood Canal Centre, or outside Loxwood Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. Nobody heads out until you've heard the quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Loxwood itself
Loxwood is a village situated on the banks of the River Lox in West Sussex, with a low elevation of around 33 metres above sea level. Loxwood lies near the villages of Ifold, Alfold Bars, and Alfold, and is approximately 19.9 miles from the city of Chichester. Loxwood has a population of around 1026 residents, who mostly live in detached houses. Loxwood is also within commuting distance of London, being around 34.4 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains in Loxwood and across West Sussex
Alfold Bars and Alfold are among the towns around Loxwood, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout RH postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning RH14 0, and our van arrives fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road by Emmanuel Fellowship, or a lay-by on the way to Diamond Jubilee Garden. Awkward to explain, like the back of St John the Baptist? By a border? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Loxwood drivers
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around West Sussex.