Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Forton: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Forton, is normally all it takes if found before the motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels around Forton and Privett run, with diesel for your motor. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Forton: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off St. John's Close, or on the way home in the car park outside The Battle Of Trafalgar.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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 tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Camdentown or the middle of Forton, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Seafield or a forecourt around Forton, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show what belongs in each inlet just there.
- The handbook says which it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Portsmouth Harbour, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Hampshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush by Lees Lane North at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Forton: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Shell or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Forton? Then your car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M275 — under 3 miles out of Forton — at the next exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Forton is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Portsmouth — so say roughly how far it went.
Forton: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Our van reaches the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, near The Salvation Army - Gosport, or by St Mary's Catholic Primary School. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since those answers decide this work and our price. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your vehicle. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Forton, for a moment
Forton is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, near the city of Portsmouth. Forton sits at a low elevation of around 3 metres, and its proximity to the sea has influenced its development. Forton is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects its history of growth as a residential area. Forton is situated close to other nearby places, including Camdentown, Newtown, and Anns Hill.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Forton included
Over PO postcodes, our teams covering Forton — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Anns Hill and Newtown among them. Quickest of all: quote a PO12 3 postcode for our van.
Shifting your car isn't needed. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a street by St John the Evangelist, or a lay-by towards Forton Field. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Gosport Spiritualist Church? Close to a border? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
For Forton people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.