How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Northgate
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Northgate. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — yet many current diesels driven about Northgate and Furnace Green hold a second liquid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Northgate: how it takes place
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Exchange Road before work, or in the car park at The Old Punch Bowl on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new vehicle.
No part halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Crawley or the middle of Northgate, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Three Bridges or a forecourt around Northgate.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Crawley? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across West Sussex, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of College Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Northgate: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — BP, Sainsbury's or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. If you're on your own drive around Northgate, leave it where it sits.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M23, under 3 miles from Northgate, that means the next exit. A short hop across Northgate is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there around Northgate, what takes place?
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Crawley Town Hall, or outside Northgate Primary School. The replies determine the work and the quote, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your 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. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Northgate and where it is
Northgate is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 77 metres. Northgate is located near several other places, including Crawley, West Green, and Southgate, and is approximately 20 miles from Brighton and Hove. Northgate has a population of around 7295 people and is predominantly composed of flat housing. Northgate is also within commuting distance of London, being around 27 miles from the city.
AdBlue drains in Northgate and across West Sussex
Throughout RH postcodes, the teams that cover Northgate — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Southgate and West Green among them. A postcode starting RH10 1 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. Draining takes place right there, whether a drive, a road by TK Maxx, or a lay-by on the way to Memorial Gardens. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Marks & Spencer.
Northgate motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere around West Sussex: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.