AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lyndhurst: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep your engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Lyndhurst. Reading before the event? Then the rest explains how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads around Lyndhurst and Emery Down carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler on every tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
Lyndhurst: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Gosport Lane before work, or in the car park at The Mailmans Arms on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Lyndhurst or out in Custards.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Bank or a forecourt around Lyndhurst, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- On plenty of motors, size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Ashurst New Forest, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Hampshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of The Boltons.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lyndhurst already?
Brief order, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Texaco or anywhere else. Your own drive in Lyndhurst is where it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M27 — under 5 miles out of Lyndhurst — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Lyndhurst is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Southampton, and so say.
Lyndhurst: what takes place when our technicians get there
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Michael and All Angels CofE Infant School, close to New Forest Museum or on your own driveway. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and price. Nobody sets off until you've had the price by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Lyndhurst and where it is
Lyndhurst is a village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of approximately 40 metres, and is located near the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. Lyndhurst lies within the South East region of England, about 76.5 miles from London, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Custards, Goose Green, and Pikes Hill. Lyndhurst has a population of around 1790 people and predominantly features detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Lyndhurst included
As a rural village, Lyndhurst shares its vans nearby areas — Goose Green, Pikes Hill — right across SO postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting SO43 7 gets our van to you fastest.
The car stays where it is. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Our Lady of the Assumption and Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, or a layby on the way to Coles Mead Recreation Ground. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Lyndhurst Library.
In short, for Lyndhurst motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.