Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Figheldean: Why It Occurs
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Figheldean, finding it before your motor runs normally 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 happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is how many modern diesels near Figheldean and Netheravon run, with diesel for your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
Figheldean: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Pollen Close before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a new vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Alton or the heart of Figheldean: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Figheldean or a driveway out in Brigmerston. A few seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Grateley? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere around Wiltshire, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Pollen Lane.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through its own spout.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Figheldean already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Murco or anywhere else. Your own driveway around Figheldean is the place it should stay.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Figheldean sits under 25 miles from the M4; there, take the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salisbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Figheldean.
Figheldean: what occurs when we get there
By Netheravon All Saints CofE Primary School, close to St Michael and All Angels or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those answers settle the work and our price, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes away unaided, no matter how long it sits. The filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the car. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour after we arrive. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Figheldean, briefly
Figheldean is a village in Wiltshire, situated on the banks of the River Avon at an elevation of around 87 metres. Figheldean lies near the city of Salisbury, approximately 10 miles to the northwest, and is surrounded by other small villages such as Alton and Ablington. Figheldean has a population of around 536 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Figheldean is located in the South West region of England, about 74 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains around Figheldean and across Wiltshire
Being a village, Figheldean has the same vans as nearby areas — Ablington, Milston — all the way through SP postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning SP4 8, and our van arrives quickest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Barrow Clump, on a layby heading to Barrow Clump, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of All Saints' Church? Close to a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Figheldean motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.