How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Buriton
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Buriton, finding it before the motor turns normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Nursted, as well as Buriton, run on two liquids; the motor gets just your 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.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, again and again. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Buriton
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Heatherfield before work, or in the car park at The Nest on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a strange vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. It takes seconds, whether out in Weston or bang in the centre of Buriton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Buriton forecourt or a drive over in Petersfield, take a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Petersfield.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Greenway Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Buriton?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. 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 pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the BP or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive around Buriton, leave it where it is.
Where your motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn it off. Leave the Waterlooville Bypass — under 5 miles out of Buriton — at the first junction. A short hop across Buriton is a smaller job than a run towards Chichester, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Buriton, and what happens next
Our van reaches the vehicle anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Buriton Village Hall, or outside Buriton Primary School. Which liquid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because those answers set both work and price. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Buriton, for a moment
Buriton is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 82 metres, approximately 12 miles north of Chichester. Buriton has a population of around 794 people, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Buriton is surrounded by nearby places such as Weston, Causeway, and Old Ditcham, and is about 51 miles south-west of London. Buriton remains a quiet residential community with a strong sense of rural character.
AdBlue drains round Buriton, and Hampshire beyond
Buriton is a rural village, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Causeway and Old Ditcham among them, across the GU postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts GU31 5, and our van arrives fastest.
Shifting your car is not needed. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road by Buriton War Memorial, or a lay-by towards Buriton Recreation Ground.. Guessing doesn't help behind Saint Mary's, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
For Buriton motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere around Hampshire: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.