Newtown: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, if your motor has not turned, it's drained and fully purged where the vehicle sits in Newtown. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your engine — but many modern diesels seen round Newtown and Upper Parkstone hold a second liquid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There is a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap to use. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Newtown?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Rosemary Road, or outside The Tavern on the way home that evening.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the pour begins, nothing halts it. It's a few seconds, be it in Mannings Heath or bang in the heart of Newtown.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Canford Heath or a forecourt around Newtown.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Parkstone (Dorset).
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere in Dorset the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Rosemary Gardens.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Newtown?
Brief order, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the staff to help roll your car away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Esso, the Tesco or anywhere else. Your own driveway in Newtown is where it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is where to come off when you are on the M27, under 25 miles from Newtown. About how far did it go? Hopping across Newtown is smaller work than a run of under 25 miles to Salisbury, so tell us.
Newtown: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Livingstone Road Junior School, near Parkstone Church or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, because the replies decide this work and the price. No one sets off before you've had our quote by phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. The engine is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Newtown, for a moment
Newtown is a suburban area in Dorset, situated on the coast in the South West region of England. Newtown sits at an elevation of around 65 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's residential character. Newtown is located near other places such as Mannings Heath and Foxholes, and is within commuting distance of Salisbury, which is approximately 24 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Newtown included
As a new town, Newtown shares its vans nearby places — Foxholes, Alderney — all the way across BH postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode beginning BH12 3, and the van arrives quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Draining happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by St Clements, or a lay-by towards Haskells Recreation Ground. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Splashdown Water Park.
For Newtown motorists, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Dorset.