AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southwater: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Southwater, is normally what it takes if caught before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Southwater and Barns Green carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Southwater
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Worthing Road before work, or in the car park outside The Lintot on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it takes place in Southwater Street or the middle of Southwater, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Southwater forecourt or a driveway over in Marylands Park, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many motors mark which belongs in each filler just there.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Christs Hospital, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is around West Sussex — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church Lane, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check once more — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Southwater already?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Texaco, Shell or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear when you ask. At home around Southwater? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means where to come off if you're on the M23, under 10 miles from Southwater. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Southwater.
When our technicians get there in Southwater, what takes place?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by Southwater Infant Academy, beside Southwater War Memorial or at home, the van travels to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the replies decide the work and quote. No one heads out before you've had the quote by phone.
Then your tank is drained and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need about half an hour once we arrive. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Southwater itself
Southwater is a village in West Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of 46 metres, approximately 16.6 miles north of Brighton and Hove. Southwater has a mix of housing types, with terraced houses being predominant, and is close to nearby places such as Southwater Street and Copsale. Southwater is also within commuting distance of London, being around 34.8 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains about Southwater, and West Sussex beyond
Throughout RH postcodes, our teams covering Southwater — a rural village — work the surrounding places too, Copsale and Two Mile Ash among them. A postcode starting RH13 9 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street near Southwater Iguanodon, or a lay-by towards Public Playing Field. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Southwater Library, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Southwater people: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across West Sussex.