Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastleigh
Keep your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Eastleigh, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. 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
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of newer diesels seen around Eastleigh and North Stoneham hold a second liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Eastleigh: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off High Street before work, or in the car park outside The Spitfire on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a strange vehicle.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Eastleigh or out in Newtown.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Fryern Hill or a forecourt around Eastleigh, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show what belongs in each inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Hampshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Leigh Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five is off limits.
Eastleigh: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the Texaco or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Eastleigh.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. Come off the M3 — under a mile out of Eastleigh — at the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Eastleigh is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Southampton — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Eastleigh, and what takes place next
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by Norwood Primary & Pre-School, beside The Railwayman or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. Once your filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Eastleigh
Eastleigh is a significant urban centre situated in the county of Hampshire, lying between two major cities. The town is nestled in a riverside setting, providing a unique character to the area. Eastleigh serves as the main hub for the surrounding borough, boasting a range of amenities and services. It is located in a strategic position, roughly equidistant from Southampton and Winchester.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Eastleigh included
Bishopstoke and Boyatt Wood are among the places near Eastleigh, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, throughout SO postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SO50 5.
Shifting the car is not necessary. Wherever it sits — beside Holy Cross Catholic Church, on a lay-by en route to Leigh Road Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of 50 years memorial? By a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
For Eastleigh drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.