Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Withdean: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car stands around Withdean, is normally what it needs when found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Withdean and Hollingdean carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Withdean: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Withdean Court Avenue, or on the way home in the car park outside The Station Hotel.
New-to-you vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. Whether it happens in Westdene or the middle of Withdean, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in West Blatchington or a forecourt around Withdean, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 Preston Park.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across East Sussex — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Withdean Rise, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
Withdean: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear if you ask. Your own drive in Withdean is where it should stay.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. Leave the M23 — under 25 miles out of Withdean — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Withdean.
What takes place when we turn up in Withdean
By St Bernadette's Catholic Primary School, near Withdean Sports Complex or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the 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 doesn't wash out on its own. After your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Withdean
Withdean is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Brighton and Hove, situated near the South Downs in East Sussex. Withdean sits at an elevation of 59 metres, close to the coastal city of Brighton and Hove, and is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings. Withdean is bordered by nearby places such as Westdene, Patcham, and Preston, and is home to a population of approximately 6100 residents. Withdean is also within commuting distance to London, being around 45 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Withdean and across East Sussex
Over BN postcodes, our teams covering Withdean — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Preston and Patcham among them. Fastest of all: quote a BN1 5 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Surrenden Field, a side street close to Church of the Ascension: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Tricky to explain, like the back of St John the Evangelist Church? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Withdean motorists
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across East Sussex.