Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hardley: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where the car stands around Hardley, is usually what it takes if found before the engine runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Hardley and Frostlane run, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Hardley?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Long Lane, or at The Forest Home on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether in Little Holbury or bang in the centre of Hardley.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Roughdown or a forecourt in Hardley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — from Netley's car park, perhaps — not when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are around Hampshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Main Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hardley already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive around Hardley is the place it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next exit is the place to come off when you're on the M27, under 10 miles from Hardley. Mileage counts — a short hop across Hardley is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Southampton — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Hardley, what happens?
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it by Manor Church of England Infant School, near New Hope or on your own drive, our van travels to it. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the answers set both work and quote. You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Hardley
Hardley is a small village in coastal Hampshire, situated near the shores of Southampton Water. Hardley sits at an elevation of around 37 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Hardley is located close to the nearby places of Little Holbury, Holbury, and Buttsash, and is approximately 4.6 miles from the city of Southampton.
Hardley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a coastal village, Hardley shares its vans surrounding places — Holbury, Buttsash — all the way across SO postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a SO45 2 postcode to our van.
There's no need to move your car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to The Warren, a side street close to Holbury Manor: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Tumulus? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
For Hardley people, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere across Hampshire.