How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highbury
Keep your engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car sits around Highbury, is normally all it needs when found before your motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels in St Francis Court, as well as Highbury, run on two fluids; your engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Highbury
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Portsmouth Road before work, or in the car park outside The Portsbridge on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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 pour once it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Cosham or right in the heart of Highbury.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Vicarage Row or a forecourt around Highbury, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- 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 outside Cosham.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere across Hampshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Chatsworth Avenue, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Highbury already?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive in Highbury, leave it where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Highbury lies under a mile from the M27; on it, take the first exit. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Highbury is smaller a job than a trip of under 5 miles towards Portsmouth, and so say.
Highbury: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Highbury Primary School, near Hilsea Lines and Ramparts or on your own drive. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. On the call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Highbury and where it is
Highbury is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and close to the neighbouring areas of Cosham, Wymering, and Hilsea. Highbury is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and low elevation of around 2 metres above sea level. Highbury has a population of approximately 5921 residents and is located about 3.1 miles from Portsmouth city centre. Highbury is also within commuting distance to London, being around 61.5 miles away.
Highbury and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout PO postcodes, the teams that cover Highbury — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Hilsea and Wymering included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PO6 2.
Moving your car is not needed. Wherever it sits — beside Bastion 3, Hilsea Lines, in a layby en route to Cosham Park, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Assuming doesn't help behind Church of the Nazarene, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
The short version for Highbury drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Hampshire.