Stanmer: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stanmer. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels on the roads round Stanmer and East Moulsecoomb carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Stanmer?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Brighton & Hove Bypass before work, or in the car park outside Ruby on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Coldean or the middle of Stanmer: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Hollingbury or a forecourt in Stanmer, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — from Falmer's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around East Sussex, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Northfield Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stanmer already?
Do not start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Asda, Esso or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Stanmer is the place it stays.
Where the engine has run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. The next junction is where to leave if you are on the M23, under 25 miles from Stanmer. A short hop across Stanmer is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 5 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we turn up around Stanmer, what occurs?
Outside Coldean Primary School, near Stanmer Parish Church or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. What fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since the answers set both work and price. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Before we leave, we fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
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 busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Stanmer itself
Stanmer is a small hamlet in East Sussex, situated approximately 3.7 miles north of Brighton and Hove, and about 44 miles south of London. Stanmer sits in a relatively low-lying area, with an elevation of around 82 metres, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Coldean, Falmer, and North Moulsecoomb. Stanmer has a population of around 655 people, and its housing stock is predominantly made up of terraced properties.
AdBlue drains about Stanmer, and East Sussex beyond
Over BN postcodes, the vans that cover Stanmer — a rural hamlet — work the nearby spots too, North Moulsecoomb and Falmer among them. Quickest of all: give a BN1 9 postcode to the van.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road near Stanmer Craft Museum, or a lay-by towards Grubbings. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Observatory ruin.
The short version for Stanmer motorists
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around East Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.