Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Swanwick: Why It Happens
Stop reading a minute if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Lower Swanwick. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Lower Swanwick and Oak Hill carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Lower Swanwick
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
Haste follows from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Coal Park Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside The Ship.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Lower Swanwick or out in Swanwick.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Lower Swanwick forecourt or a driveway out in Lowford, spend a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show what belongs in which inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bursledon? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Bye Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Lower Swanwick: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the engine remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. 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 dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push your car away from the pump. Your own driveway in Lower Swanwick is the place it should stay.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. Come off the M27 — under a mile out of Lower Swanwick — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Lower Swanwick is less work than a trip of under 10 miles towards Southampton, so tell us.
Lower Swanwick: what happens when our engineers get there
By Sarisbury Church of England Junior School, near Bursledon Brickworks or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. Nobody heads out before you've heard our quote by phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole 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 the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Lower Swanwick, for a moment
Lower Swanwick is a small suburban area situated on the coast of Hampshire, near the city of Southampton. Lower Swanwick has a population of around 1022 people and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Lower Swanwick sits at an elevation of 15 metres, close to the nearby villages of Swanwick and Sarisbury, and looks out over the coastal scenery of the area.
AdBlue drains around Lower Swanwick, and Hampshire beyond
Throughout SO postcodes, the teams covering Lower Swanwick — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Bursledon and Sarisbury included. Quote a postcode beginning SO31 7, and our van gets there quickest.
Shifting the car isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Swanwick Shore Strict Baptist Chapel, on a lay-by heading to Swanwick Wood, at home — that's where it is drained. Guessing won't help behind Sarisbury Community Centre, on a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Lower Swanwick people
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.