Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Town: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. In New Town, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels near New Town and The Common run, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in New Town
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Weald Close, or on the way home in the car park at Forester's Arms.
New-to-you motors come second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, keeps on. It's seconds, be it out in Oakhill or bang in the centre of New Town.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Tower Hill or a forecourt around New Town, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Horsham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in West Sussex — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Athelstan Way at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around New Town?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things starts. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around New Town? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then switch off. On the M23, under 10 miles from New Town, that means the next junction. A short hop across New Town is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we turn up around New Town, what occurs?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Mary's CofE (Aided) Primary School, close to Appleyards Bible Church or on your own drive. Those answers decide this work and our price, and so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run. That price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About New Town itself
New Town is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 49 metres. New Town lies near several other communities, including Oakhill and Horsham, and is within commuting distance of Brighton and Hove. New Town has a population of around 5022 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. New Town is also relatively close to London, being approximately 32 miles away.
AdBlue drains about New Town, and West Sussex beyond
Horsham and Doomsday Green are among the towns around New Town, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over RH postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RH13 6.
The car does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — beside Llama lookout, on a layby en route to Bennetts Field, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Brighton Road Baptist Church.
For New Town people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in West Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.