Branksome: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Branksome, finding it before the motor runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many newer diesels around Branksome Park, like those in Branksome, carry on two liquids; your motor takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Branksome: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off James Road before work, or in the car park outside The Branksome Railway Hotel on the way home.
New-to-you cars are second, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company cars put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it takes place in Bourne Valley or the middle of Branksome, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Talbot Heath or a forecourt in Branksome.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever you are across Dorset — a routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Bourne Valley Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Branksome already?
Do not start your engine: that is where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Sainsbury's or anywhere else. On your own drive around Branksome? So the car stays put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M27, under 25 miles from Branksome, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Branksome.
When we turn up around Branksome, what happens?
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside St Aldhelm's Church Hall, or outside Bishop Aldhelm's Church of England Primary School. Those replies decide this work and our price, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system purged thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need roughly half an hour after we are there. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Branksome
Branksome is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the Bourne Valley and close to the neighbouring areas of Rossmore and Westbourne. Branksome has a relatively low elevation of 42 metres and is located approximately 94 miles southwest of London. Branksome is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings, which are typical of many coastal towns in the South West region. Branksome is also within commuting distance of Salisbury, which is about 24 miles to the north.
AdBlue drains round Branksome, and Dorset beyond
Branksome is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns near it, Rossmore and Westbourne among them, across the BH postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a BH12 1 postcode to our van.
Moving the car isn't needed. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street near St Aldhelm, or a layby on the way to Coy Pond Gardens. Guessing won't help at the back of Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
The short version for Branksome people
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Dorset.