Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Willingdon
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the car stands in Willingdon, is normally all it needs when caught before the motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads about Willingdon and Wannock carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Willingdon: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Tas Combe Way, or heading home in the car park outside The Wheatsheaf Inn.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour begins, nothing halts it. Lower Willingdon or the heart of Willingdon: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Filching or a forecourt around Willingdon, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Hampden Park.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across East Sussex, use this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Coopers Hill.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Willingdon already?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the Esso or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Willingdon.
When your engine has run already, stop somewhere safe then turn the car off. The next junction is where to leave if you are on the M23, under 50 miles from Willingdon. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Willingdon is smaller work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Brighton and Hove, so tell us.
What takes place when our technicians get there in Willingdon
By Willingdon Primary School, close to St Mary the Virgin or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the replies decide the work and the quote. Nobody heads out before you've heard the quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. 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 counts more here than with petrol. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Willingdon and where it is
Willingdon is a village in East Sussex, situated near the coast and approximately 17 miles from Brighton and Hove. Willingdon sits at an elevation of around 35 metres, with the village and surrounding areas like Lower Willingdon and Ratton Village forming a small community. Willingdon is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Willingdon remains a relatively small village, with a population of around 1928 residents.
AdBlue drains around Willingdon and across East Sussex
Throughout BN postcodes, the vans covering Willingdon — a coastal village — work the surrounding spots too, Ratton Village and Foulride Green among them. Fastest of all: quote a BN20 9 postcode to the van.
No need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Huggets Lane Recreation ground, a side street close to St Mary the Virgin Church Hall: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Assuming won't help at the back of Willingdon Memorial Hall, on a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Willingdon motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around East Sussex, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.