AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hampton Park: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Hampton Park, finding it before the motor runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads round Hampton Park and Laverstock carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Hampton Park?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Apostle Way, or outside Hampton Inn on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange car.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Hampton Park or out in Ford.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Hampton Park forecourt or a driveway out in Wyndham Park, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Salisbury, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Wiltshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Pearce Way, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read it.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Hampton Park?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the BP, the Shell or somewhere else. Your own driveway around Hampton Park is the place it stays.
When the engine has been run already, pull over somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. On the M27, under 15 miles from Hampton Park, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Hampton Park is less a job than a trip of under 3 miles towards Salisbury, so say.
When we arrive in Hampton Park, what takes place?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Greentrees Primary School, close to Fastness or on your own driveway. Those answers settle this work and the price, so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before we go.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Hampton Park, for a moment
Hampton Park is a suburban area located on the riverside in Wiltshire, with a mix of housing types but predominantly detached homes. Hampton Park sits near the city of Salisbury, approximately 1.6 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Ford and Bishopdown. Hampton Park is situated at an elevation of around 70 metres, in a region known for its scenic riverside settings. Hampton Park is also within commuting distance to London, being around 77 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Hampton Park, and Wiltshire beyond
Hampton Park is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Bishopdown and Old Sarum among them, across the SP postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts SP1 3, and the van arrives quickest.
The car remains put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Castle Hill Country Park, a side street near Bishopdown Evangelical Church: our technicians drain it where it sits. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Boscombe Down Aviation Collection, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for Hampton Park drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Wiltshire.