Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Buttsash: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor hasn't turned, it's drained and thoroughly cleaned where your vehicle sits in Buttsash. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to the motor — but many current diesels driven round Buttsash and Hythe carry a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place both together behind one flap. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, again and again. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Buttsash: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Fleuret Close before work, or in the car park at The Glen on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Frostlane or the heart of Buttsash: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, on a forecourt around Buttsash or a driveway out in Little Holbury. Seconds, no more.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Netley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is across Hampshire — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Kitchers Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Buttsash?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway around Buttsash, leave the car where it is.
When the motor has run already, pull over safely and turn it off. Buttsash sits under 5 miles from the M27; there, take the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Southampton, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Buttsash.
What happens when we arrive around Buttsash
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Wildground Junior School, close to St Anne or on your own driveway. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the replies set the work and price. That price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Buttsash, for a moment
Buttsash is a suburban area located near the coast in Hampshire, with Buttsash sitting approximately 38 metres above sea level. Buttsash is close to the city of Southampton, being only 3.6 miles away, and Buttsash is also within commuting distance to London, which is around 71.2 miles away. Buttsash has a population of around 4788 people and Buttsash is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Buttsash and across Hampshire
Dibden Purlieu and Hardley are among the places near Buttsash, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over SO postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts SO45 3, and our van gets there quickest.
No need to move the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Saint Anne's Neighbourhood Centre & Church, a lay-by on the way to Kitcher's Copse, a drive. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Dibden Purlieu Community Hall? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Buttsash motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Hampshire.