Rustington: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Rustington. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Rustington and Angmering carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled at every filling station visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Rustington
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Woodlands Avenue before work, or in the car park at Georgi Fin heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a strange car.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. East Preston or the middle of Rustington: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt in Rustington or a driveway over in Wick. Seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark which goes in each inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Angmering.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere in West Sussex, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Claigmar Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side is still closed before raising 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 the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rustington?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. At home around Rustington? So the car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you're on the Waterlooville Bypass, under 25 miles from Rustington. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Chichester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Rustington.
What takes place when we get there around Rustington
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Rustington Community Primary School, near Rustington Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because those answers determine this work and the price. During the call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Rustington
Rustington is a coastal locality in West Sussex, situated near the mouth of the River Arun and close to the South Downs National Park. Rustington has a population of around 3146 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Rustington sits at a low elevation of 6 metres above sea level, with nearby towns including East Preston and Littlehampton. Rustington is located approximately 50.9 miles from London and 12 miles from the city of Chichester.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Rustington included
Littlehampton and Toddington are among the places near Rustington, a coastal area, that the same vans cover, throughout BN postcodes. A postcode starting BN16 3 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift your car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near St Peter & St Paul Church Hall, a lay-by on the way to Brickfields Recreation Ground, a drive. Assuming doesn't help behind Rustington Library, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For Rustington motorists, the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in West Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.