How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tompsets Bank
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine hasn't run, it's drained and fully rinsed where your car sits around Tompsets Bank. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the engine — but many current diesels driven round Tompsets Bank and Quabrook carry a second liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Tompsets Bank?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Tompsets Bank before work, or in the car park at The Chequers on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Tompsets Bank or out in Highgate.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Colemans Hatch or a forecourt around Tompsets Bank.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what goes in which inlet just there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then look beneath 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 East Grinstead's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across East Sussex that is.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush beside Balfour Gardens at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Tompsets Bank?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Tesco, JET or another — the attendants will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. On your own drive around Tompsets Bank? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. On the M23, under 10 miles from Tompsets Bank, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Tompsets Bank is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Brighton and Hove — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians arrive in Tompsets Bank, what happens?
Wherever the car has stopped, whether outside Forest Row Church of England Primary School and Nursery, beside Christian Community Church or at home, our van travels to it. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Then our engineers start the engine and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Tompsets Bank and where it is
Tompsets Bank is a suburban area in East Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of 112 metres, and is located near the towns of Highgate and Forest Row. Tompsets Bank is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. Tompsets Bank sits within the wider South East region, approximately 29.9 miles from London and 19.8 miles from Brighton and Hove.
Tompsets Bank and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
As a residential suburb, Tompsets Bank has the same vans as surrounding areas — Forest Row, Wych Cross — all the way through RH postcodes and the surrounding area around them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RH18 5.
The car does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near The Venu, a lay-by on the way to Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Forest Row Parish Council & Community Centre? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Tompsets Bank motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in East Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.