Ewshot: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your engine hasn't run, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where your vehicle is in Ewshot. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Ewshot and Hog Hatch run, with diesel for your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, different fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The mistake lives in that gap.
Ewshot: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a driveway off Broomhill before work, or in the car park outside The Windmill on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: a new motor.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ewshot or out in Warren Corner.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Ewshot or a drive over in Bowling Alley. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — from Farnham's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around Hampshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Church Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Ewshot?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away if you ask. On your own drive in Ewshot? Then the car stays where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M3, under 5 miles from Ewshot, that means the next exit. A short hop across Ewshot is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Ewshot: what takes place when we turn up
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Folly Hill Infant Academy, close to St Mary's or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of anything else.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Next our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Ewshot itself
Ewshot is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 169 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ewshot lies near the villages of Warren Corner, Redlands, and Doras Green, and is approximately 24 miles from the city of Winchester. Ewshot is also within commuting distance of London, being around 35 miles from the capital. Ewshot has a population of around 654 residents.
AdBlue drains around Ewshot, and Hampshire beyond
Being a rural village, Ewshot shares its vans nearby areas — Redlands, Doras Green — right through GU postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting GU10 5.
The vehicle remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near Ewshot Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to Skains Copse, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Squirrel, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
Ewshot people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere in Hampshire.