AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hiltingbury: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Hiltingbury, finding it before the engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Fryern Hill, as well as Hiltingbury, run on two fluids; your engine takes only the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hiltingbury: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Hiltingbury Road, perhaps at King Rufus on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Hocombe or the heart of Hiltingbury: 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 driveway in Allbrook or a forecourt in Hiltingbury, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Chandlers Ford's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Hampshire that is.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Oakwood Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hiltingbury?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own driveway around Hiltingbury, leave the vehicle where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Leave the M3 — under a mile out of Hiltingbury — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Hiltingbury is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles to Winchester, so say.
Hiltingbury: what takes place when we get there
By Hiltingbury Junior School, near St. Martin in the Woods or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the answers decide both work and quote. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. The filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the car. Next our engineers start the engine and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
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 after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Hiltingbury itself
Hiltingbury is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated approximately 5 miles from the city of Winchester and 64 miles from London. Hiltingbury sits in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of around 55 metres, surrounded by other local neighbourhoods such as Hocombe and Chandlers Ford. Hiltingbury is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential development. Hiltingbury remains a settled community with a population of around 3625 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Hiltingbury included
Hiltingbury is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Cuckoo Bushes and Chandlers Ford among them, across the SO postcode area. A postcode starting SO53 5 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it stands — beside St Edward the Confessor (RC), in a layby en route to Hiltingbury Lakes, on a drive — that's where it is cleared. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Brethren's Meeting Room, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Hiltingbury people, the short version
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, wherever around Hampshire: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.