AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cupernham: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Cupernham. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads round Cupernham and Halterworth carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Cupernham?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Ralph Lane, or on the way home in the car park at The Sun Inn.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a new motor.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Harefield or the heart of Cupernham: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Abbotswood or a forecourt in Cupernham.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in each inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Romsey, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in Hampshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Woodley Lane.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Cupernham?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Murco or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Cupernham.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next exit is where to come off if you are on the Nursling Spur Motorway, under 5 miles from Cupernham. Mileage matters — a short hop across Cupernham is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Southampton — so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we turn up in Cupernham
By Cupernham Junior School, near Fishlake View Point or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since the answers determine this work and the quote. No one sets off until you've heard the price by phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, we fire it up and confirm that it's running correctly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Cupernham and where it is
Cupernham is a suburban area situated on the lakeside in Hampshire, with a mix of detached housing and natural scenery. Cupernham sits at an elevation of 37 metres, close to the city of Southampton and near other local places such as Harefield and Woodley. Cupernham is located within the South East region of England, approximately 68 miles from London. Cupernham has a population of around 4843 residents, living in predominantly detached homes.
Cupernham and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Woodley and Crampmoor are among the places near Cupernham, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout SO postcodes. Give a postcode that starts SO51 7, and our van gets there fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Abbotswood Farm Ruins, or a lay-by on the way to Woodley Green. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Abbotswood Community Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Cupernham people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.