AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knowle: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Knowle, finding it before your engine runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. 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 motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels in Lee Ground, like those in Knowle, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Knowle?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Serotine Close before work, or in the car park outside The Miners Arms on the way home.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second factor: a strange vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. It's seconds, whether in Funtley or bang in the centre of Knowle.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Knowle forecourt or a driveway over in Hill Park, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On plenty of vehicles, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or company car — at Fareham's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Hampshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Kingswood Place, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel cap remained shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Knowle?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Texaco, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Knowle.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. Knowle lies under a mile from the M27; on it, take the first exit. A short hop across Knowle is a smaller job than a run towards Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up in Knowle, what takes place?
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether outside Orchard Lea Junior School, beside Knowle Village Hall or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, since those answers decide this work and the price. During the phone call itself, you are told our price — ahead of dispatch.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the car. We do not leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Knowle, for a moment
Knowle is a village situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with a relatively low elevation of 41 metres. Knowle lies near several smaller settlements, including Funtley, Tapnage, and Crockerhill, and is close to the city of Portsmouth, which is approximately 7.6 miles away. Knowle has a population of around 1487 people and is characterised by a predominance of flat housing. Knowle is also located within commuting distance of London, which is around 63.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Knowle, and Hampshire beyond
Knowle is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Tapnage and Crockerhill among them, across the PO postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning PO17 5, and the van gets there quickest.
The car does not need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside Al Mahdi Centre, on a lay-by en route to Knowle Village Green, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Hill Park Baptist Church.
Knowle people: the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, anywhere around Hampshire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.