Farnborough Street: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Farnborough Street, catching it before the engine turns normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Mytchett, as well as Farnborough Street, run on two liquids; the engine takes only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place the two together behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Farnborough Street: how it takes place
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, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Abbey Way before work, or in the car park at Prince of Wales on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. It takes seconds, whether out in Farnborough Park or bang in the centre of Farnborough Street.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Frimley Green or a forecourt around Farnborough Street.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many cars show which belongs in which filler right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Farnborough Main's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Old Rectory Gardens.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Farnborough Street?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the JET, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Farnborough Street.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. Farnborough Street sits under 3 miles from the M3; there, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Winchester, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Farnborough Street.
Our arrival in Farnborough Street, and what happens next
Our van reaches your car anywhere it stopped — your own drive, near St. Peter's, or by St Patrick's Catholic Primary School. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Next we start the engine and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour after we arrive. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Farnborough Street and where it is
Farnborough Street is a suburban area situated near the River Blackwater in Hampshire, with a mix of residential flats and local amenities. Farnborough Street sits at an elevation of 77 metres, close to the town of Farnborough and its surrounding parks, including Farnborough Park. Farnborough Street is located approximately 30 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Farnborough Street has a population of around 4263 residents, predominantly living in flat-type accommodation.
AdBlue drains around Farnborough Street, and Hampshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Farnborough Street shares its vans nearby areas — Farnborough, South Farnborough — all the way through GU postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting GU14 7.
There's no need to shift the car. Wherever it sits — near 8th Farnborough Scout Group, on a layby heading to St. Peter's playing fields, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Awkward to explain, like the back of St. Michael's Abbey Church? By a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Farnborough Street drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.