How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Haxton
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. In Haxton, finding it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels around Coombe, as well as Haxton, run on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Haxton
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Lower Street, perhaps outside the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a strange motor.
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 after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Haxton or out in Fittleton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Haxton or a drive out in New Town. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many motors, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Pewsey, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Wiltshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Chesnut Rise at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Haxton?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Murco, ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump. Your own drive around Haxton is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M4 — under 25 miles out of Haxton — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salisbury, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Haxton.
Haxton: what takes place when we arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Netheravon All Saints CofE Primary School, close to All Saints or on your own drive. The replies decide this work and the quote, so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. No one heads out until you have had the quote by phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We do not leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Haxton itself
Haxton is a small village in Wiltshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 84 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Haxton lies near the villages of Fittleton, Netheravon, and Fifield, and is approximately 11.9 miles from the city of Salisbury. Haxton has a population of around 530 people and is located in the South West region of England, about 73.9 miles from London.
Haxton and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Haxton is a village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Netheravon and Fifield among them, across the SP postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a SP4 9 postcode for our van.
Moving the car isn't needed. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by Netheravon Library, or a layby on the way to The Folly. Tricky to explain, like the back of Phoenix Hall? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Haxton people
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere in Wiltshire: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.