Anna Valley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Anna Valley. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around Bulbery, as well as Anna Valley, carry on two liquids; your engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Anna Valley
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Foundry Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Poplar Farm Inn.
New-to-you motors are second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Anna Valley or out in Little Ann.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt in Anna Valley or a driveway over in Red Rice. A few seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Andover, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are across Hampshire — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Taskers Drive, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Anna Valley: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will usually help to push your car away if you ask. At home around Anna Valley? Then your car stays put.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. Leave the M3 — under 15 miles out of Anna Valley — at the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Anna Valley is less work than a trip of under 15 miles towards Winchester, so tell us.
What takes place when we turn up around Anna Valley
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Bury Hill Fort, or outside Balksbury Junior School. Which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because the replies decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — ahead of anything else.
Then that tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before leaving, we fire it up and confirm that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once we arrive. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Anna Valley, briefly
Anna Valley is a small village in Hampshire, situated on the banks of the River Anton at an elevation of around 58 metres. Anna Valley lies near the larger city of Winchester, approximately 12.5 miles to the south, and is part of a network of rural settlements including Little Ann, Upper Clatford, and Abbotts Ann. Anna Valley has a population of around 643 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Anna Valley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over SP postcodes, the vans that cover Anna Valley — a village — work the nearby spots too, Abbotts Ann and Upper Clatford included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SP11 7.
Shifting the vehicle isn't needed. Wherever it stands — beside Upper Clatford Village Hall, in a layby en route to Rooksbury Mill Local Nature Reserve, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Stephen Hopkins.
For Anna Valley drivers, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire.