Oakhill: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop reading a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits around Oakhill. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels on the roads round Oakhill and The Common carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Oakhill: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a driveway off Macleod Road before work, or in the car park at Forester's Arms on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. It takes a few seconds, whether in New Town or bang in the centre of Oakhill.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Little Haven or a forecourt around Oakhill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook shows where it lives if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Horsham's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is around West Sussex — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Orchard Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Oakhill already?
Don't start your engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Esso, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push your car away when asked. If you're on your own driveway in Oakhill, leave the vehicle where it sits.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M23, under 10 miles from Oakhill, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Oakhill is less a job than a trip of under 25 miles towards Brighton and Hove, and so say.
Oakhill: what occurs when we get there
By Kingslea Primary School, near Hope Strict Baptist Chapel or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid got in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the answers set both work and price. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we go.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Oakhill
Oakhill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Sussex, with an elevation of 58 metres. Oakhill lies within the South East region, approximately 31.8 miles from London and 18 miles from Brighton and Hove. Oakhill is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is located near other places such as New Town, Horsham, and Doomsday Green.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Oakhill included
Oakhill is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Horsham and Doomsday Green among them, across the RH postcode area. Give a postcode that starts RH13 5, and our van gets there quickest.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near St Leonard's Church, or a lay-by on the way to Bennetts Field. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Appleyards Bible Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Oakhill drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, anywhere in West Sussex: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.