Foxcotte: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not run, it is drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car is around Foxcotte. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels near Foxcotte and Penton Corner run, with diesel feeding your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
Foxcotte: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Foxcotte Lane before work, or in the car park at The Royal Oak heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: an unfamiliar 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 tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Charlton or the middle of Foxcotte, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Knights Enham or a forecourt around Foxcotte.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Andover? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever in Hampshire, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Richborough Drive.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look once more — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Foxcotte already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Foxcotte, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M3, under 15 miles from Foxcotte, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Winchester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Foxcotte.
What occurs when we turn up in Foxcotte
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Portway Junior School, close to The DEPOT or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since those answers decide the work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Draining the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, however long it is left. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. After that we fire it up and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Foxcotte, for a moment
Foxcotte is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with an elevation of around 83 metres. Foxcotte lies near the cities of Winchester and Andover, and is surrounded by other small settlements such as Charlton, Penton Mewsey, and Penton Grafton. Foxcotte has a population of approximately 554 people, and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Foxcotte is located within the South East region, about 62.7 miles from London.
Foxcotte and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a rural hamlet, Foxcotte shares its vans nearby areas — Penton Mewsey, Penton Grafton — all the way across SP postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode that starts SP10 4, and the van gets there fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near St Thomas, or a layby towards Gorse Plantation. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Salto Centre.
Foxcotte people: the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire.