How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Beeding
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle stands in Upper Beeding, is normally all it needs when caught before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads around Upper Beeding and Steyning carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Beeding: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually 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, perhaps before work off Saltings Way, or at King's Head on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Castle Town or right in the heart of Upper Beeding.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Upper Beeding or a driveway out in Coombes. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Shoreham-By-Sea? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is in West Sussex — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Dawn Crescent.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upper Beeding?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive around Upper Beeding, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction means the place to come off if you are on the M23, under 15 miles from Upper Beeding. A short hop across Upper Beeding is a smaller job than a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive around Upper Beeding, what happens?
Outside Upper Beeding Primary School, close to Beeding and Bramber Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. The answers settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts 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. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Upper Beeding and where it is
Upper Beeding is a village situated on the banks of the River Adur in West Sussex, with a low elevation of around 3 metres above sea level. Upper Beeding lies near the South Downs National Park and is close to several nearby places, including Castle Town, Bramber, and Botolphs. Upper Beeding has a population of approximately 2330 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Upper Beeding is located near the city of Brighton and Hove, about 8.1 miles away, and is around 43.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Upper Beeding, and West Sussex beyond
Bramber and Botolphs are among the towns around Upper Beeding, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout BN postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BN44 3.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Peter, a lay-by on the way to Saltings Field, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of St Nicholas, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
For Upper Beeding people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around West Sussex.