How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Cokeham
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. In Upper Cokeham, catching it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains how it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Upper Cokeham and Lancing carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Upper Cokeham?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Berriedale Drive, or heading home in the car park outside The Crabtree Inn.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. Sompting or the heart of Upper Cokeham: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Upper Cokeham or a driveway over in North Lancing. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Lancing.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around West Sussex, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Cokeham Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Cokeham?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at BP, Sainsbury or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Upper Cokeham.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit is where to come off if you're on the M23, under 25 miles from Upper Cokeham. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Cokeham.
When our technicians arrive in Upper Cokeham, what occurs?
Outside Sompting Village Primary School, near Sompting United Reformed Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The replies decide this work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. During the call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once we arrive. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Upper Cokeham itself
Upper Cokeham is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 8.5 miles west of Brighton and Hove. Upper Cokeham lies close to neighbouring communities such as Sompting and Lower Cokeham, and its semi-detached housing stock reflects the typical residential character of the area. Upper Cokeham has a population of around 7008 people and is located at a relatively low elevation of 13 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains around Upper Cokeham, and West Sussex beyond
Over BN postcodes, our teams that cover Upper Cokeham — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Sompting Abbotts and Lower Cokeham included. A postcode starting BN15 0 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by Harriet Johnson Centre, or a lay-by on the way to Sompting Recreation Ground. Tricky to explain, like the back of Sompting Village Hall? Close to a border? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
For Upper Cokeham motorists, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever around West Sussex: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.