New Swanage: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around New Swanage, finding it before your engine runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many modern diesels around Herston, as well as New Swanage, run on two fluids; your motor takes only the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at each forecourt call-out, again and again. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around New Swanage?
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, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Redcliffe Road before work, or in the car park outside The Crows Nest Inn on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. Ulwell or the heart of New Swanage: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a New Swanage forecourt or a drive out in Durlston, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your 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.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Poole? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — wherever you are around Dorset — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Ballard Way.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in New Swanage?
Short order, then. First: the motor remains off. Leave your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Texaco or the BP, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in New Swanage? So your car remains put.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. Leave the M27 — under 50 miles out of New Swanage — at the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing New Swanage is less a job than a trip of under 50 miles to Southampton, and so tell us.
New Swanage: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Swanage, close to All Saints Church or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the replies decide the work and the quote. Nobody sets off until you have had the quote by phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need about half an hour after our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About New Swanage
New Swanage is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the town of Swanage and overlooking the sea. New Swanage has a population of around 1696 people and is characterised by detached housing. New Swanage sits at an elevation of 22 metres, close to nearby places such as Ulwell and Glebeland Estate.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, New Swanage included
New Swanage is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Swanage and Glebeland Estate among them, across the BH postcode area. A postcode starting BH19 1 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Swanage Cricket Club, a side street close to Shep's Hollow: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. Guessing doesn't help behind Punch and Judy, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
The short version for New Swanage drivers
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around Dorset: keep the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.