AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Furzehill: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where the vehicle stands around Furzehill, is usually what it needs when found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels in Pig Oak, like those in Furzehill, run on two liquids; your engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Furzehill: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Smugglers Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Stocks Inn on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: a new motor.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it in Clapgate or right in the centre of Furzehill.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Furzehill forecourt or a driveway out in Colehill, take a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in each inlet right there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — from Hamworthy's car park, say — rather than when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever across Dorset, use this routine.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Furzehill.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — confirm your diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Furzehill?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the BP, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive around Furzehill is where it stays.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M27, under 25 miles from Furzehill, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Furzehill.
What happens when our technicians turn up around Furzehill
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether outside Wimborne First School and Nursery, beside HoneyBrook Farm or on your own drive, our van travels to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide both work and quote. During the call itself, you are told our price — ahead of anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, as long as your engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Furzehill and where it is
Furzehill is a small village in Dorset, situated inland at an elevation of 42 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Furzehill lies near the villages of Clapgate and Grange, and is close to Merry Field Hill. Furzehill is approximately 19 miles from Salisbury and 93 miles from London, making it a rural community with a relatively small population of around 500 residents. Furzehill has a peaceful setting, surrounded by the Dorset countryside.
AdBlue drains around Furzehill and across Dorset
Over BH postcodes, the teams that cover Furzehill — a rural village — work the nearby places too, Merry Field Hill and Grange among them. Fastest of all: quote a BH21 4 postcode for our van.
The vehicle doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it sits — near St Michael and All Angels Church, in a layby heading to Catley Copse, at home — that is where it gets cleared. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Walford Mill Crafts, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Furzehill people, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Dorset, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.