Larkhill: 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 and call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully rinsed where the vehicle is around Larkhill. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds the engine — but plenty of current diesels seen about Larkhill and West Amesbury hold another fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Larkhill
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off The Packway, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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 tip after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Larkhill or out in Strangways.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Alton or a forecourt around Larkhill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- 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.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Grateley's car park, say — not when the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Wiltshire, use this routine.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and not rushed beside Howard Vyse Road 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.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Larkhill already?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear if asked. If you are on your own drive around Larkhill, leave it where it stands.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Leave the M27 — under 25 miles out of Larkhill — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Salisbury, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Larkhill.
Larkhill: what occurs when our technicians turn up
By Larkhill Primary School, close to The Catholic Church of Saint Barbara or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. The price is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears away on its own, no matter how long it sits. Once your filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Larkhill itself
Larkhill is a locality in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 118 metres, approximately 8.8 miles from Salisbury. Larkhill is characterized by its terraced housing and is located near other small places such as Strangways, Hackthorn, and Durrington. Larkhill has a population of around 1536 residents and is about 75.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Larkhill and across Wiltshire
Hackthorn and Durrington are among the places around Larkhill, a small village, that the same teams cover, over SP postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SP4 8.
The car does not need to shift. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Garrison Church of St Alban, a lay-by on the way to Alton Penning, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Neolithic Long Barrow? By a border? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
In short, for Larkhill motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Wiltshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.