AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newtown: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Leave the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Newtown, finding it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many modern diesels on the roads about Newtown and Fleetend carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
Newtown: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Newtown Road before work, or in the car park outside The Hook & Lucianos Restaurant on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Newtown or out in Warsash.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Hook or a forecourt in Newtown, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Hamble.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is across Hampshire — a routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush beside Wynsdale Chase on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Stage five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Newtown?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Esso, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car away when asked. Your own driveway in Newtown is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M27 — under 3 miles out of Newtown — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Southampton, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Newtown.
What happens when our technicians get there in Newtown
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near St Marys, or outside Hook-With-Warsash Church of England Academy. Both the work and the price depend on three answers — what fluid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need about half an hour once we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Newtown and where it is
Newtown is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, with an elevation of approximately 13 metres above sea level. Newtown sits near the city of Southampton, about 6 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Warsash and Hook Park Estate. Newtown is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Newtown is situated within the South East region of England, about 68 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Newtown and across Hampshire
Throughout SO postcodes, our teams that cover Newtown — a new town — work the surrounding places too, Hook Park and Hook Park Estate included. A postcode starting SO31 9 gets our van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Wherever it stands — near Priory Church of St. Andrew the Apostle, in a lay-by heading to Strawberry Field, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Hamble Village Memorial Hall? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
The short version for Newtown drivers
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere in Hampshire: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.