Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bitterne Park
Keep the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Bitterne Park, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels near Bitterne Park and Bitterne Manor run, with diesel for your motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Bitterne Park?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Woodmill Lane before work, or in the car park at The Hop Inn on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. Whether it occurs in Midanbury or the middle of Bitterne Park, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Bitterne Park or a driveway out in Hampton Park. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bitterne? Ask the person who drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Hampshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Witts Hill, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bitterne Park?
Short order, then. First: your engine remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive around Bitterne Park, leave it where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M27, under a mile from Bitterne Park, that means the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Bitterne Park is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles towards Southampton — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we turn up around Bitterne Park
By Townhill Junior School, close to Townhill Park Community Centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those answers decide the work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of it washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. After your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Bitterne Park itself
Bitterne Park is a suburban area located on the coast in southern Hampshire, sitting approximately 59 metres above sea level. Bitterne Park is situated near the city of Southampton, being only 2.3 miles away, and is part of the larger Southampton urban area. Bitterne Park is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Bitterne Park has a population of around 9241 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Bitterne Park included
Bitterne Park is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Townhill Park and Bitterne among them, across the SO postcode area. Give a postcode beginning SO18 4, and the van gets there quickest.
The car stays where it is. Wherever it stands — near Church of the Ascension, in a lay-by en route to Dell Road, at home — that is where it gets emptied. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bitterne Park Baptist Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Bitterne Park drivers: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.