Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Headley
Pause reading a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Headley, finding it before your engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of newer diesels seen round Headley and Plastow Green carry a second fluid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Headley: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Thornford Road, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new motor 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 meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it in Mill Green or bang in the centre of Headley.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Headley or a drive out in Bishops Green. Seconds, that's all.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Thatcham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere around Hampshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not rushed by A339 on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read it.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Headley already?
Short order, then. First: your engine stays off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the Murrays Service Station or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Headley is where it stays.
When your motor has run already, stop safely and turn the vehicle off. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the M4, under 10 miles from Headley. Distance counts — a quick hop across Headley is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Winchester — so say roughly how far it went.
When we turn up in Headley, what occurs?
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Ecchinswell and Sydmonton Church of England Primary School, close to St Peter or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the car. Your engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Headley itself
Headley is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 110 metres. Headley lies near the villages of Mill Green and Brocks Green, and is approximately 20 miles from the city of Winchester. Headley has a population of around 711 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Headley is also within commuting distance of London, being around 50 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains around Headley and across Hampshire
Brocks Green and North Sydmonton are among the towns near Headley, a rural village, that the same vans cover, over RG postcodes. A postcode starting RG19 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Headley Gravel Pit, a lay-by on the way to Brock's Great Copse, a driveway. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Greenham Peace Garden, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Headley motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.