Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burton: Why It Happens
Leave your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Burton, is normally all it takes when caught before your engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven round Burton and South Bockhampton hold another fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler on each tank. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Burton: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Meadow Lane, or heading home in the car park at The Oak Inn.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a new car.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. It's seconds, be it in Winkton or right in the centre of Burton.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Burton forecourt or a drive out in Christchurch, spend a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars mark what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- 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 at Christchurch.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere in Dorset, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Footners Lane.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Burton?
Short list, then. First: your engine stays off. Keep your ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Murco, BP or any forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway around Burton, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M27 — under 15 miles out of Burton — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Burton is less work than a trip of under 25 miles to Southampton, so tell us.
Burton: what takes place when our engineers get there
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Burton Church of England Primary School, near Burton Green United Reformed Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. During the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. 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 the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Burton itself
Burton is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Christchurch and Highcliffe. Burton sits at a low elevation of around 6 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Winkton and Purewell. Burton is characterized by its predominance of terraced housing, typical of many similar areas in the South West of England.
Burton and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
Burton is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Purewell and Fairmile among them, across the BH postcode area. A postcode starting BH23 7 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to St. Luke's Church, a lay-by on the way to Burton Recreation Ground, a drive. Assuming won't help at the back of Burton Community Centre, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for Burton people
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever across Dorset: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.