AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Colden Common: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Colden Common, finding it before the engine runs normally means draining and a full flush on the spot. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of current diesels seen around Colden Common and Nobs Crook hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to the 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 cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap to use. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
Colden Common: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Saint Vigor Way before work, or in the car park outside Rising Sun heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars come next, as well. Rentals, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Colden Common or out in Brambridge.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Fishers Pond or a forecourt in Colden Common, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Shawford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever in Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Upper Moors Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Colden Common already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor stays off. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Shell or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, if you ask. At home in Colden Common? So the car remains where it is.
Already started? Pull over once it's sensible, then turn off. Leave the M3 — under 3 miles out of Colden Common — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Colden Common is less work than a run of under 5 miles towards Winchester, and so say.
Our arrival around Colden Common, and what happens next
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Colden Common Primary School, beside Colden Common Community Centre or on your own drive, the van comes to it. The replies settle the work and the quote, and so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. During the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel 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 doesn't wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before we leave, our technicians start the car and check that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Colden Common itself
Colden Common is a village in Hampshire, situated on the banks of the River Itchen at an elevation of around 36 metres. Colden Common lies near the city of Winchester, approximately 4.6 miles to the north, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Brambridge and Lords Wood. Colden Common has a population of around 1790 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Colden Common is located in the South East region of England, about 62.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Colden Common, and Hampshire beyond
Being a village, Colden Common shares its vans nearby places — Lords Wood, Highbridge — right across SO postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting SO21 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Green, a side street close to Methodist Church: we drain the vehicle where it stands. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Brambridge Park House, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Colden Common people
First, the cap; then, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, wherever around Hampshire: switch it off then call 0333 366 0103.