Langstone: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Langstone. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels in Denvilles, like those in Langstone, run on two fluids; the motor gets just the 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.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Langstone
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Longmead Gardens, or at Royal Oak on the way home after work.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
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 after it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Brockhampton or right in the heart of Langstone.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Langstone or a drive over in Stockheath. A few seconds, no more.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook will say where.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Havant's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere around Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Southbrook Close at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Langstone already?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the Applegreen, ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump. Your own driveway in Langstone is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the Waterlooville Bypass — under 3 miles out of Langstone — at the first exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Langstone is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Portsmouth — so say about how far it went.
Langstone: what occurs when we get there
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Saint Nicholas' Chapel, or by Bosmere Junior School. The replies settle this work and our price, so our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the vehicle is tested. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive. No money upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Langstone and where it is
Langstone is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and overlooking the Langstone Harbour. Langstone sits at a low elevation of around 7 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's residential character. Langstone is close to nearby places such as Brockhampton, Warblington, and Havant, and is within commuting distance of London, approximately 59 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Langstone included
Warblington and Havant are among the towns around Langstone, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over PO postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting PO9 1.
The car does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Homewell Spring, a lay-by on the way to Southmoor Nature Reserve, a driveway. Guessing won't help behind The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Langstone people
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire.