Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Headley: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, if your motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits in Headley. Here in advance? In that case the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Headley and Passfield run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together behind one flap. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Headley
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Liphook Road before work, or in the car park at The Holly Bush heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. It's seconds, whether in Arford or bang in the centre of Headley.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Headley forecourt or a drive out in Lindford, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in which filler just there.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Liphook.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Hampshire, use this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Pound Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Headley?
Do not start the engine: that's how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — JET, Esso or any other — the staff will usually help push your car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway around Headley is the place it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Headley lies under 15 miles from the M3; there, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Chichester, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Headley.
Headley: what occurs when our engineers get there
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside The Holme Church of England Primary School, close to Headley Village Hall or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what fluid, which quantity, and if it's run — so we ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Then the tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run take about half an hour once we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Headley itself
Headley is a small village in north-east Hampshire, situated in a rural area with nearby villages including Arford and Beech Hill. Headley sits at an elevation of around 95 metres, with its detached houses reflecting the local architectural style. Headley remains a quiet, residential community with a population of approximately 880 people, close to the South Downs National Park. Headley is also near the village of Headley Down, which is part of the same civil parish.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Headley included
Throughout GU postcodes, the teams covering Headley — a rural village — work the nearby locations too, Headley Down and Beech Hill included. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting GU35 8.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Headley Village Green, a side street close to All Saints Church: our engineers drain it where it stands. Guessing won't help at the back of St. Francis Church, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
For Headley people, the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.