Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Uckfield
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle sits around Uckfield, is normally what it takes when found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels in Ringles Cross, as well as Uckfield, carry on two liquids; your motor takes only the diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. It's in that gap that the error happens.
Uckfield: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Bell Lane, or outside The Station on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange vehicle.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. New Town or the middle of Uckfield: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Horsted Green or a forecourt in Uckfield.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many cars show what belongs in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is across East Sussex — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Bell Farm Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but 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 once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Uckfield already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — EG, Texaco or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the car away, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Uckfield, leave the vehicle where it stands.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Uckfield lies under 15 miles from the M23; on it, take the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Uckfield is smaller work than a run of under 15 miles to Brighton and Hove, and so say.
What happens when our technicians turn up around Uckfield
By St Philip's Catholic Primary School, near Uckfield Civic Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since those answers determine this work and the quote. You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. After that we fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need about half an hour once we are there. Paying is 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, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Uckfield, briefly
Uckfield is a town situated in the valley of the River Uck in East Sussex, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential areas. Uckfield sits at a relatively low elevation of around 20 metres above sea level, near the edge of the Weald. Uckfield is close to several nearby places, including New Town, Rocks Park, and Ridgewood, and is within commuting distance of Brighton and Hove. Uckfield has a population of approximately 13934 people.
Uckfield and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TN postcodes, the vans that cover Uckfield — a riverside town — work the surrounding locations too, Ridgewood and Rocks Park among them. Give a postcode that starts TN22 1, and our van gets there quickest.
No need to shift your car. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near The Source Youth Centre, or a layby towards Elizabeth Gardens. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of United Reformed Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Uckfield drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere in East Sussex: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.