Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashley
Pause reading a minute when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Ashley, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven round Ashley and Tiptoe hold another liquid too. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with a 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 the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ashley: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off Lower Ashley Road before work, or in the car park at Wellingtons on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches 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. It's a few seconds, whether in Hordle or bang in the centre of Ashley.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Bashley Park or a forecourt around Ashley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at New Milton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are in Hampshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Ashley Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ashley already?
Short order, then. Top of it: the engine stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Tesco, Shell or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Ashley.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the M27, under 15 miles from Ashley. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Ashley is less a job than a run of under 15 miles towards Southampton, and so say.
Our arrival around Ashley, and what happens next
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near St. Peter's Church, or by Ashley Infant School. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the answers settle the work and the quote. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. After your filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Ashley, for a moment
Ashley is a coastal village in Hampshire, situated near the towns of New Milton and Hordle. Ashley sits at an elevation of 37 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting its desirable location. Ashley is close to the city of Southampton, yet remains a distinct and separate community. Ashley benefits from its proximity to the sea and surrounding countryside.
Ashley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Ashley is a coastal village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, New Milton and Old Milton among them, across the BH postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BH25 5.
No need to shift the vehicle. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Hordle War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Ashley Recreation Ground, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of New Milton Town Council, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The short version for Ashley drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Hampshire.