AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Basingstoke: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Stop reading for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands around Basingstoke, is usually all it takes when caught before your motor runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Basingstoke and Houndmills carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. 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 pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Basingstoke: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Station Mall before work, or in the car park outside Basingstoke Railway Social Club on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar motor.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. South View or the heart of Basingstoke: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Basingstoke forecourt or a drive out in Kings Furlong, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- 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 outside the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Chapel Hill.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Discover during the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Basingstoke already?
Do not start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Texaco or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Basingstoke.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then turn off. The next exit means the place to leave if you're on the M3, under 3 miles from Basingstoke. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Basingstoke makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Winchester — so say about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive around Basingstoke
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside South View Junior School, close to Sailing By Stars or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Basingstoke and where it is
Basingstoke is a town in north Hampshire, situated on the River Loddon at an elevation of around 89 metres. Basingstoke lies approximately 44 miles west of London and 17 miles northeast of Winchester, with nearby suburbs including South View, Oakridge, and Eastrop. Basingstoke has a population of around 27,000 people and is predominantly composed of flat housing. Basingstoke is a significant urban centre in the region, with a mix of residential and commercial areas.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Basingstoke included
Being a riverside town, Basingstoke has the same vans as nearby areas — Oakridge, Eastrop — right across RG postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode that starts RG21 7, and the van arrives quickest.
No need to move the vehicle. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Poppy, or a lay-by on the way to Glebe Gardens. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of The Malls, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Basingstoke people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Hampshire.