Elvetham Heath: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. In Elvetham Heath, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Elvetham Heath and Winchfield Hurst run, with diesel for your engine. 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 one filler of its own. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Elvetham Heath: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Wintney Street, or heading home in the car park at De Havilland Arms.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. Rotten Green or the heart of Elvetham Heath: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Pondtail or a forecourt around Elvetham Heath.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Fleet? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning appears — anywhere it is in Hampshire — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Turners Avenue.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Elvetham Heath: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Shell or somewhere else. At home in Elvetham Heath? So your car remains where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M3, under a mile from Elvetham Heath, that means the next exit. A short hop across Elvetham Heath is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 50 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Elvetham Heath
Our van reaches your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Church on the Heath, or by Elvetham Heath Primary School. The replies determine this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run. That quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Elvetham Heath itself
Elvetham Heath is a village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 71 metres, and is located near the villages of Rotten Green and Elvetham. Elvetham Heath has a population of approximately 2731 residents and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Elvetham Heath is close to the city of Winchester, which is 25.4 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, being 34.7 miles from the capital. Elvetham Heath is part of the Fleet area, with nearby amenities and services.
AdBlue drains round Elvetham Heath, and Hampshire beyond
Elvetham and Fleet are among the towns around Elvetham Heath, a rural village, that the same vans cover, throughout GU postcodes. Give a postcode beginning GU51 1, and the van gets there fastest.
Moving the car is not necessary. Wherever it stands — near The Key Centre, on a layby en route to Railroad Heath, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of The Scream? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Elvetham Heath drivers: the short version
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.