Alverstoke: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the car sits around Alverstoke, is usually what it needs when caught before the engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Alverstoke and Clayhall run, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Alverstoke?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Avenue Court before work, or in the car park outside Village Home heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a strange vehicle.
Nothing halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Alverstoke or out in Privett.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, on a forecourt in Alverstoke or a driveway out in Forton. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Portsmouth Harbour, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is across Hampshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by Beatty Drive at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- 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 the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Alverstoke?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Shell, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway around Alverstoke is the place it should stay.
When the engine has been run by now, stop safely then turn it off. Come off the M275 — under 5 miles out of Alverstoke — at the next junction. A short hop across Alverstoke is a smaller job than a run towards Portsmouth, under 3 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when we arrive in Alverstoke
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside St Marys Church Parish Centre, or outside Alverstoke Church of England Aided Junior School. The answers settle this work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Alverstoke and where it is
Alverstoke is a suburban area on the coast of Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and close to the neighbouring areas of Privett, Newtown, and Camdentown. Alverstoke lies at a low elevation of around 7 metres, reflecting its coastal setting. Alverstoke has a population of approximately 4953 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Alverstoke is located about 66.6 miles from London, making it a commuter option for those working in the capital.
AdBlue drains about Alverstoke, and Hampshire beyond
Over PO postcodes, the vans that cover Alverstoke — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Camdentown and Newtown among them. A postcode starting PO12 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Draining happens right there, whether a driveway, a road by St Mary's Church, or a lay-by towards Crescent Gardens. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Alverstoke Lawn Tennis Club? Close to a county line? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
The short version for Alverstoke drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Hampshire.