Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Canford Cliffs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Canford Cliffs, finding it before the motor runs usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Canford Cliffs and Sandbanks carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
Canford Cliffs: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Haven Road before work, or in the car park at The Cliff on the way home.
New-to-you motors are next, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts 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. It takes seconds, be it out in Branksome Park or bang in the centre of Canford Cliffs.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Westbourne or a forecourt in Canford Cliffs, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- 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 Branksome.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Dorset the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Canford Cliffs Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Canford Cliffs already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Fuel Berth or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. On your own drive in Canford Cliffs? Then the car remains where it is.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the car off. The next exit is where to leave if you're on the M27, under 25 miles from Canford Cliffs. A short hop across Canford Cliffs is a smaller job than a run towards Salisbury, under 50 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers get there around Canford Cliffs
Outside Lilliput Church of England Infant School, close to Drax Studio or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because those replies decide the work and the quote. No one sets off until you have heard our price over the phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. Before we leave, our technicians start the engine and make sure that it's running properly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Canford Cliffs itself
Canford Cliffs is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the mouth of Poole Harbour. Canford Cliffs has a relatively low elevation of 36 metres and is close to nearby places such as Branksome Park and Lilliput. Canford Cliffs is predominantly composed of flat housing, reflecting its development as a residential area. Canford Cliffs is located approximately 95 miles from London and 26 miles from Salisbury, making it a commuter base for those working in nearby cities.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Canford Cliffs included
Canford Cliffs is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Lilliput and Alum Chine among them, across the BH postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BH13 7.
The vehicle stays where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Canford Cliffs Library, a lay-by on the way to Canford Cliffs Village Pocket Park, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Church of the Transfiguration? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Canford Cliffs motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Dorset.