AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fleetend: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Fleetend. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels around Abshot, like those in Fleetend, carry on two liquids; the motor takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together behind one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
Fleetend: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Fleet End Road before work, or in the car park at The Jolly Farmer heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after begun, keeps on. It's a few seconds, be it out in Hook or bang in the centre of Fleetend.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Fleetend or a driveway over in Newtown. A few seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Swanwick's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere it is around Hampshire — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Fleet End Bottom, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it works.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fleetend already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Esso, BP or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away when asked. On your own drive around Fleetend? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Fleetend lies under 3 miles from the M27; there, take the next junction. A short hop across Fleetend is a smaller job than a run towards Southampton, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we arrive in Fleetend
Wherever your car came to rest, be it outside Locks Heath Junior School, beside St Marys or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. Before leaving, we fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Fleetend itself
Fleetend is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. Fleetend sits at an elevation of 17 metres, close to the Solent Strait and within commuting distance of major employment centres. Fleetend is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and forms part of the larger South East England conurbation.
AdBlue drains about Fleetend, and Hampshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Fleetend has the same vans as nearby areas — Warsash, Titchfield Common — all the way through SO postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting SO31 9 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Warsash Common Local Nature Reserve, a side street near Abshot Community Centre: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Assuming doesn't help behind Lockswood Library, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Fleetend drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Hampshire.