How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Seaford
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if your engine has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the car is around Seaford. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around Norton, as well as Seaford, run on two liquids; your motor takes just your diesel. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There is a filler for each tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Seaford?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Church Street, or outside Wellington Hotel on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Seaford or out in Sutton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Seaford forecourt or a driveway over in Exceat, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in East Sussex the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Causeway, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look again — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Skip stage five entirely.
Seaford: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: the motor stays off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Morrisons, Texaco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if you ask. On your own drive around Seaford? Then the vehicle remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M23, under 50 miles from Seaford, that means the next exit. A short hop across Seaford is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Seaford, and what occurs next
The van comes to the car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Kings Church, Seaford, or by Seaford Primary School. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because those replies decide this work and the quote. During the call itself, you hear the quote — before anything else.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel is added, and finally your car is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Seaford and where it is
Seaford is a coastal town in East Sussex, situated on the southern edge of the South Downs and overlooking the English Channel. Seaford sits at a low elevation of around 5 metres, with the town centre close to the seafront and the surrounding hills rising up to the north. Seaford has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Seaford is located near several smaller communities, including Sutton, East Blatchington, and Bishopstone.
Seaford and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout BN postcodes, our vans covering Seaford — a coastal town — work the surrounding places too, Bishopstone and East Blatchington included. Quickest of all: give a BN25 1 postcode to the van.
The car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Jubilee Garden, a side street near Seaford Little Theatre: we drain the vehicle where it sits. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of West House, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Seaford people: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, wherever in East Sussex: switch the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.