How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bar End
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bar End. Reading in advance? In that case what follows covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — but many newer diesels seen about Bar End and St Giless Hill hold a second liquid as well. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
Bar End: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Barfield Close, or on the way home in the car park outside Black Boy.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after started, carries on. Highcliffe or the heart of Bar End: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in The Close or a forecourt in Bar End.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Winchester, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — wherever you are in Hampshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Bar End Road.
- 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 the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Bar End: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Esso, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump. At home in Bar End? Then your car remains where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M3 — under a mile out of Bar End — at the next exit. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Bar End is smaller a job than a run of under a mile towards Winchester, and so tell us.
What occurs when we arrive around Bar End
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, beside Winchester Sport & Leisure Park, or outside All Saints Church of England Primary School. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those answers determine the work and our price. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full 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 the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Bar End
Bar End is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Hampshire, close to the city of Winchester. Bar End has a relatively low elevation of around 40 metres and is located near other local areas such as Highcliffe and Wharf Hill. Bar End is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and is home to a population of approximately 2367 residents. Bar End is also conveniently located near The Soke, a nearby area of Winchester.
AdBlue drains around Bar End, and Hampshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Bar End shares its vans nearby places — Wharf Hill, The Soke — right across SO postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting SO23 9 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays where it is. Draining happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road by All Saints, or a layby towards Wrack Hill. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of New Hall, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Bar End people, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, anywhere across Hampshire: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.