Longham: 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 your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor hasn't turned, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle is in Longham. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels near Longham and Knighton carry, with diesel for the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler for every tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It is in the gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Longham: how it happens
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Ham Lane, perhaps outside White Hart on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing halts it. Whether it takes place in Dudsbury or the middle of Longham, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Ferndown or a forecourt in Longham, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- Can't see it next to your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Branksome? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — wherever it is across Dorset — a simple routine to follow.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed beside Ringwood Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using the own spout.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Longham?
Short order, then. Top of it: your engine stays unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Texaco, the Tesco or anywhere else. If you are on your own drive around Longham, leave it where it sits.
Already started? Pull over when it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M27 — under 25 miles out of Longham — at the next junction. A short hop across Longham is a smaller job than a run towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Longham
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Hampreston Church of England Voluntary Aided First School, near Longham United Reformed Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out before you've heard our quote over the phone.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Longham
Longham is a village situated on the shores of Longham Lakes in Dorset, with a low elevation of around 13 metres. Longham lies within a short drive of several nearby settlements, including Dudsbury, West Parley, and Hampreston. Longham has a population of approximately 1077 residents, who mostly live in detached houses. Longham is also relatively close to the city of Salisbury, which is about 20 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Longham included
Longham is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, West Parley and Hampreston among them, across the BH postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a BH22 8 postcode to the van.
Moving the car is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Saint Mary the Virgin, Hampreston, a lay-by on the way to Holmwood Park SANG, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Dudsbury Girl Guide Camp.
Longham motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Dorset.