Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pound Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. In Pound Hill, catching it before your motor runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds your motor — but many newer diesels driven around Pound Hill and Three Bridges carry another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Pound Hill
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Balcombe Road before work, or in the car park at The Hillside Inn on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, be it in Burleys Wood or bang in the centre of Pound Hill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Forge Wood or a forecourt in Pound Hill.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver knows. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — at Three Bridges's car park, perhaps — rather than when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around West Sussex that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Worth Park Avenue Roundabout, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Pound Hill?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the Tesco or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive around Pound Hill, leave it where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. Pound Hill lies under a mile from the M23; on it, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Pound Hill.
When our engineers get there in Pound Hill, what happens?
Outside Pound Hill Infant Academy, close to Moat or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers decide the work and quote. During the call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Pound Hill
Pound Hill is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of around 85 metres. Pound Hill lies approximately 26.6 miles south of London and 20.7 miles north of Brighton and Hove, near neighbouring areas such as Burleys Wood and Crabbet Park. Pound Hill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. Pound Hill has a population of around 7246 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Pound Hill included
Over RH postcodes, the teams covering Pound Hill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Worth and Crabbet Park among them. Quote a postcode beginning RH10 3, and our van gets there fastest.
Shifting the car is not necessary. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road near Wakehams Green Community Center, or a lay-by on the way to Burleys Wood. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of St Edward the Confessor's.
In short, for Pound Hill people
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across West Sussex: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.