How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashford Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine has not run, it's drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits in Ashford Hill. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven round Ashford Hill and Inhurst hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
Ashford Hill: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Ashford Hill Road before work, or in the car park outside The Ship on the way home.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it happens in Fair Oak or the middle of Ashford Hill, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Hyde End or a forecourt around Ashford Hill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 at Midgham.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever you are across Hampshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Little Knowl Hill, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Ashford Hill: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Murrays Service Station or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump. On your own drive in Ashford Hill? So your car stays put.
Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Ashford Hill sits under 10 miles from the M4; there, take the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ashford Hill.
Ashford Hill: what takes place when we get there
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it by Ashford Hill Primary School, beside Ashford Hill Village Hall or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Those replies determine the work and our price, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it sits. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Ashford Hill and where it is
Ashford Hill is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 80 metres. Ashford Hill lies near the larger settlements of Fair Oak and Winchester, and is surrounded by other smaller places such as Wheat Hold and Brimpton Common. Ashford Hill has a population of approximately 611 people, and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Ashford Hill is located about 47.6 miles from London, making it a rural community within commuting distance of the capital.
Ashford Hill and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Ashford Hill is a rural village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Wheat Hold and Brimpton Common among them, across the RG postcode area. A postcode starting RG19 8 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Paul's Church, a lay-by on the way to Ashford Hill National Nature Reserve, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of War Memorial? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
Ashford Hill drivers: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave the car switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Hampshire.