Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ludgershall: Why It Happens
Pause here for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Ludgershall. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many newer diesels seen round Ludgershall and Little Shoddesden carry another fluid as well. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The slip lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ludgershall: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Deweys Lane before work, or in the car park at Queens Head heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 once it has started. It's seconds, whether in Faberstown or bang in the heart of Ludgershall.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt around Ludgershall or a driveway over in Tidworth. A few seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Grateley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere in Wiltshire, use this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of High Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Both behind one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Ludgershall?
Short order, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Murco, Esso or any other — the staff will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Ludgershall.
When your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. Ludgershall sits under 15 miles from the M4; there, take the first exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Ludgershall is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Salisbury — so say roughly how far it went.
Ludgershall: what takes place when our engineers turn up
Anywhere the car came to rest, be it outside Ludgershall Castle Primary School, near Ludgershall Cross or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask since the replies set the work and price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ludgershall
Ludgershall is a town in north Wiltshire, situated in the gently rolling countryside of the South West region. Ludgershall sits at an elevation of around 126 metres, approximately 14.9 miles from Salisbury and 66.7 miles from London. Ludgershall has a population of around 5125 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Ludgershall is close to nearby places such as Faberstown, Perham Down, and Great Shoddesden.
AdBlue drains around Ludgershall, and Wiltshire beyond
Perham Down and Great Shoddesden are among the places around Ludgershall, a town, that the same teams cover, throughout SP postcodes. Quickest of all: give a SP11 9 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Remebrance Garden, a side street close to St James: we drain the car where it is. Awkward to explain, like the back of Ludgershall War Memorial? Close to a border? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Ludgershall people
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Wiltshire.