AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Baffins: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine has not run, it's emptied and fully flushed where the car is in Baffins. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single fluid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Baffins and Portsea Island run, with diesel feeding your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Baffins?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Algiers Road before work, or in the car park at The Baffins heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a strange car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Baffins or out in Copnor.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Baffins forecourt or a drive out in Milton, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Fratton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Hampshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Tangier Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Baffins?
Short order, then. Top of that: the motor stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at BP, Esso or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when asked. At home around Baffins? So your car remains put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M275 — under 3 miles out of Baffins — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Portsmouth, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Baffins.
When we turn up around Baffins, what occurs?
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Westover Primary School, near Alderman Lacey Library or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those answers decide the work and the price. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians leave.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Baffins itself
Baffins is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and close to the neighbouring areas of Copnor, Buckland, and Kingston. Baffins is characterized by its low elevation of around 3 metres above sea level and its predominantly terraced housing stock. Baffins is home to a population of approximately 6653 residents and is located about 1.9 miles from Portsmouth city centre. Baffins forms part of the larger Portsmouth urban area, which is about 62.7 miles south-west of London.
AdBlue drains in Baffins and across Hampshire
Throughout PO postcodes, the teams that cover Baffins — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Kingston and Buckland included. Quote a postcode that starts PO3 6, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Stagg Woods, a side street close to City Life Church Portsmouth: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Assuming doesn't help behind Goals, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Baffins motorists
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.