How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nutbourne
Leave the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when the motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly purged where your vehicle sits in Nutbourne. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads round Nutbourne and Breach carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Nutbourne: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Main Road, perhaps outside The Travellers Joy on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip begins, no part halts it. Inlands or the middle of Nutbourne: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Nutbourne or a drive out in Hambrook. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Sussex that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Anchor Court, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Nutbourne?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Murco or another — the staff will normally help push the vehicle away, when you ask. On your own drive around Nutbourne? Then your car remains where it is.
Where the motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. On the A3(M), under 10 miles from Nutbourne, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Nutbourne is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Chichester — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Nutbourne, and what happens next
Wherever your car came to rest, whether outside Southbourne Infant School, beside Southbourne Library or at home, our van comes to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the answers decide both work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. Hence it matters more. After your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the car and make sure that it is running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Nutbourne itself
Nutbourne is a small village in West Sussex, situated near the coast and close to the cities of Chichester and Portsmouth. Nutbourne has a low elevation of around 6 metres above sea level and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Inlands, Southbourne, and Prinsted. Nutbourne is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and remains a quiet residential community. Nutbourne is located approximately 56.7 miles from London, making it a rural outpost within commuting distance of the capital.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Nutbourne included
Southbourne and Prinsted are among the places near Nutbourne, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, throughout PO postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a PO18 8 postcode for our van.
Your car does not need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside Southbourne Village Hall, in a layby en route to Maybush Copse, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Bourne Leisure Centre.
For Nutbourne people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, anywhere around West Sussex: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.