Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Herston
Leave your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the vehicle sits around Herston, is usually all it takes when caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Herston and Durlston carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Herston: how it takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Bell Street, or on the way home in the car park outside The Globe Inn.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a new car.
No part stops the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Coombe or the middle of Herston: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Ulwell or a forecourt in Herston, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars show what belongs in which inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Poole.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Dorset the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Victoria Avenue.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Herston?
Short order, then. First: the engine stays off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Texaco, BP or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car away if asked. Your own driveway around Herston is the place it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. On the M27, under 50 miles from Herston, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Herston is smaller a job than a run of under 50 miles to Southampton, so tell us.
What occurs when our engineers arrive around Herston
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Emmanuel Baptist Church & Centre, or by Swanage St Mark's Church of England Primary School. The replies settle the work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. During the call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, however long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
If your engine has not run, most 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 after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Herston itself
Herston is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Swanage and New Swanage. Herston has a population of around 3427 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Herston sits at a low elevation of 13 metres, close to the sea and near the neighbouring area of Coombe.
AdBlue drains in Herston and across Dorset
Over BH postcodes, our vans covering Herston — a residential suburb — work the nearby locations too, New Swanage and Swanage among them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BH19 2.
Your car remains put. Anywhere it sits — near Saint Mark's Church, in a layby en route to Kirkwood Park, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Assuming doesn't help behind Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Herston drivers
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Dorset.