Brockhampton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where your vehicle sits around Brockhampton, is normally what it takes if caught before your engine runs. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around Stockheath, as well as Brockhampton, carry on two fluids; the motor gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your 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. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
Brockhampton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Brookside Road before work, or in the car park outside Prince of Wales on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a strange vehicle.
No part halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Langstone or the middle of Brockhampton, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Warblington or a forecourt in Brockhampton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark which goes in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Bedhampton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — wherever it is around Hampshire — a routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Brockhampton Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Brockhampton already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. Leave your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Tesco or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. On your own drive in Brockhampton? So the vehicle stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. On the Waterlooville Bypass, under a mile from Brockhampton, that means the next junction. A short hop across Brockhampton is a smaller job than a run towards Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Brockhampton, what takes place?
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Marks & Spencer, or outside Bosmere Junior School. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody heads out before you have heard our price over the phone.
Then your tank is emptied and the system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Then we start it and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Brockhampton
Brockhampton is a small suburban area on the coast of Hampshire, situated near the cities of Portsmouth and Havant. Brockhampton lies at a low elevation of around 3 metres, close to the shores of Langstone Harbour. Brockhampton is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the residential development of the area. Brockhampton is also near to the neighbouring communities of Bedhampton and Langstone.
AdBlue drains around Brockhampton and across Hampshire
Havant and Bedhampton are among the places near Brockhampton, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over PO postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PO9 1.
The vehicle stays where it is. Wherever it stands — near St Josephs Catholic Church, in a lay-by heading to Bidbury Mead Recreation Ground, at home — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Havant Spiritualist Church.
In short, for Brockhampton people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.