Stone Cross: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Stone Cross, is normally all it needs when found before the motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — yet plenty of current diesels seen round Stone Cross and Hankham hold another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stone Cross: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Dittons Road, perhaps outside The Red Lion on the way home after work.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits 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, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Stone Cross or out in Blackness.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Jenkins Green or a forecourt in Stone Cross, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Pevensey & Westham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — anywhere you are across East Sussex — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of B2104, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using its own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stone Cross already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Esso, Morrisons or another forecourt will usually help to push your car clear when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Stone Cross.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M23, under 50 miles from Stone Cross, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Stone Cross is less work than a run of under 25 miles towards Brighton and Hove, and so tell us.
Stone Cross: what takes place when our technicians arrive
By Stone Cross School, close to Stone Cross Memorial Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. 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 counts more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Next our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Stone Cross and where it is
Stone Cross is a small village in East Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 19 miles west of Brighton and Hove. Stone Cross sits at a low elevation of around 22 metres, with the village surrounded by nearby places such as Blackness, Friday Street, and Dittons. Stone Cross has a population of around 2331 people, with detached housing being the predominant type in the area. Stone Cross is also within commuting distance to London, being around 51 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Stone Cross, and East Sussex beyond
Stone Cross is a coastal village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Friday Street and Dittons among them, across the BN postcode area. A postcode starting BN24 5 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays put. Anywhere it sits — near St Luke, in a lay-by en route to Adur Park, at home — that is where it is drained. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Shinewater Sports Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Stone Cross motorists
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across East Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.