AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lee-on-the-Solent: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Around Lee-on-the-Solent, finding it before your engine runs usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your motor — but many newer diesels seen around Lee-on-the-Solent and Stubbington carry a second fluid too. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Lee-on-the-Solent?
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off High Street, or outside The Bun Penny on the way home after work.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. It's seconds, be it in Rowner or bang in the heart of Lee-on-the-Solent.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Privett or a forecourt in Lee-on-the-Solent, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Fareham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Hampshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Russell Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly through the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lee-on-the-Solent?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — BP, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Lee-on-the-Solent.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means where to leave if you are on the M27, under 5 miles from Lee-on-the-Solent. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Portsmouth, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Lee-on-the-Solent.
Lee-on-the-Solent: what happens when our engineers arrive
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Lee-on-the-Solent Junior School, near Lee-on-the-Solent Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and our quote depend on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. On the phone call itself, you are told our quote — ahead of anything else.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Lee-on-the-Solent
Lee-on-the-Solent is a coastal locality in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and overlooking the Solent Strait. Lee-on-the-Solent has a low elevation of around 5 metres above sea level and is characterised by a high proportion of flat housing. Lee-on-the-Solent is close to nearby places such as Rowner, Peel Common, and Hill Head, and is approximately 67 miles from London. Lee-on-the-Solent remains a residential area with a population of around 2304 people.
AdBlue drains round Lee-on-the-Solent, and Hampshire beyond
As a coastal area, Lee-on-the-Solent shares its vans nearby areas — Peel Common, Hill Head — right through PO postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting PO13 9.
The car remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to British Legion, a lay-by on the way to Alver Valley Country Park, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Church of St Faith, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Lee-on-the-Solent people
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Hampshire.