How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Melcombe Regis
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Melcombe Regis, is normally what it needs when found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Southill, like those in Melcombe Regis, carry on two fluids; your motor gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which filler to use. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Melcombe Regis: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Commercial Road before work, or in the car park outside The Dolphin on the way home.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Melcombe Regis or out in Weymouth.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Radipole or a forecourt around Melcombe Regis.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Weymouth.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere in Dorset the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bath Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Melcombe Regis?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your engine. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Morrisons or any other — the staff will usually help push the car away, if you ask. If you are on your own drive around Melcombe Regis, leave the car where it stands.
Where the motor has run already, pull over safely and switch the car off. The next junction means where to come off if you are on the M5, under 50 miles from Melcombe Regis. Mileage counts — a short hop across Melcombe Regis makes a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Wells — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there around Melcombe Regis
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Jubilee Clock, or by Beechcroft St Paul's CofE Primary School. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask since the replies decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and check that it's running properly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Melcombe Regis itself
Melcombe Regis is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the town of Weymouth and close to other nearby places such as Westham and Rodwell. Melcombe Regis has a relatively low elevation of around 3 metres above sea level, reflecting its coastal setting. Melcombe Regis is predominantly composed of flat housing, which is common in many coastal areas of southern England. Melcombe Regis is located approximately 118 miles southwest of London, making it a popular destination for those seeking a coastal lifestyle.
AdBlue drains around Melcombe Regis, and Dorset beyond
Westham and Rodwell are among the towns around Melcombe Regis, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over DT postcodes. Give a postcode that starts DT4 7, and the van gets there fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't needed. The drain happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by Salvation Army, or a layby on the way to Radipole Gardens. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of King's Statue, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Melcombe Regis motorists: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Dorset.