Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southbourne: Why It Occurs
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Southbourne. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels around Nutbourne, like those in Southbourne, run on two liquids; your motor takes just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
Southbourne: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Cooks Lane, perhaps at The Travellers Joy on the way home after work.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Breach or the middle of Southbourne, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Southbourne forecourt or a driveway over in Woodmancote, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in West Sussex, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never rushed beside Manor Road at the roadside.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Southbourne?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Murco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Southbourne.
Already run? Stop once it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the A3(M), under 5 miles from Southbourne. Mileage matters — a short hop across Southbourne is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Chichester — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we turn up in Southbourne
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Southbourne Infant School, near Southbourne Village Hall or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run, because those answers determine the work and our quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. That is why it counts more. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Then our engineers fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Southbourne, for a moment
Southbourne is a coastal village in West Sussex, situated near the city of Chichester and close to the neighbouring communities of Breach, Inlands, and Prinsted. Southbourne sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres above sea level, looking out over the English Channel. Southbourne has a population of approximately 3287 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Southbourne and across West Sussex
Throughout PO postcodes, our vans covering Southbourne — a coastal village — work the nearby places too, Prinsted and Inlands included. A postcode starting PO10 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Wherever it sits — near Southbourne Library, on a layby heading to Southbourne Recreation Ground, at home — that's where it is emptied. Guessing won't help at the back of Bourne Leisure Centre, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Southbourne people
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, wherever in West Sussex: switch the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.