AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sidley: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if your engine hasn't run, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car is in Sidley. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers why it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Sidley and Bexhill-on-Sea carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Sidley: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off All Saints Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside New Inn.
New-to-you vehicles come second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Sidley or out in Glenleigh Park.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Watermill or a forecourt around Sidley.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — from Bexhill's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever you are in East Sussex — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Edmonton Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- 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.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Sidley already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Pace, BP or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car away if you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Sidley, leave the car where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M20 — under 50 miles out of Sidley — at the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Sidley makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Brighton and Hove — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Sidley, and what occurs next
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill, near Equueleus or on your own drive. Those replies settle the work and our quote, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. That quote is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Sidley, briefly
Sidley is a suburban area in East Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 35 metres above sea level. Sidley lies within the larger conurbation of Bexhill, close to Glenleigh Park and Old Town, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Sidley is also relatively close to the major city of Brighton and Hove, which is 26.8 miles away, and is about 51.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across East Sussex, Sidley included
Being a residential suburb, Sidley has the same vans as nearby areas — Bexhill, Old Town — right through TN postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a TN39 5 postcode for our van.
The car remains where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Sidley House Green, a side street close to All Saints Church: our technicians drain the car where it stands. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Freedom Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Sidley motorists
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across East Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.