How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Netheravon
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the engine has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Netheravon. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels in Coombe, like those in Netheravon, carry on two fluids; your engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Netheravon?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Old School Close before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Netheravon or out in Haxton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Netheravon forecourt or a driveway over in Figheldean, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many motors show what goes in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at Pewsey's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Wiltshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Vicarage Gardens.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both under one flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using the own spout.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Netheravon?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Murco, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Netheravon.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Leave the M4 — under 25 miles out of Netheravon — at the first exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Netheravon is smaller a job than a run of under 15 miles to Salisbury, so say.
Our arrival around Netheravon, and what happens next
The van comes to the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Netheravon Library, or outside Netheravon All Saints CofE Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. No one heads out before you've heard our quote over the phone.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Next our engineers start the engine and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Netheravon itself
Netheravon is a village situated on the banks of the River Avon in Wiltshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Netheravon sits at an elevation of 84 metres, approximately 11 miles north of Salisbury, and is surrounded by nearby villages such as Haxton, Fittleton, and Fifield. Netheravon has a population of around 1068 residents, who enjoy the scenic riverside setting and easy access to the city of Salisbury. Netheravon is also within commuting distance of London, being around 74 miles to the west of the capital.
AdBlue drains across Wiltshire, Netheravon included
As a village, Netheravon has the same vans as surrounding areas — Fittleton, Fifield — all the way across SP postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quote a postcode beginning SP4 9, and our van arrives quickest.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Folly, a side street near Phoenix Hall: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of All Saints' Church.
For Netheravon motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Wiltshire.