North Poulner: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep your engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle stands around North Poulner, is usually what it takes if caught before the motor runs. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven round North Poulner and Forest Corner hold a second fluid as well. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in North Poulner
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Cowpitts Lane, perhaps outside The London Tavern on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, whether out in Poulner or right in the heart of North Poulner.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a North Poulner forecourt or a drive out in Rockford, spend a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in which inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Hinton Admiral.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, anywhere across Hampshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Gorley Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around North Poulner already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting your motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Shell, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. On your own drive in North Poulner? So your car stays put.
When the engine has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. Leave the M27 — under 10 miles out of North Poulner — at the first junction. Distance counts — a short hop across North Poulner makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Salisbury — so say about how far it went.
North Poulner: what takes place when we get there
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Poulner Infant School and Nursery, close to St John the Baptist or on your own driveway. Those replies decide this work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you've had the quote by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our technicians go.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About North Poulner, for a moment
North Poulner is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with an elevation of around 27 metres. North Poulner lies near the villages of Poulner and Hangersley, and is close to Blashford, in a region of southern England known for its gentle landscape. North Poulner has a population of approximately 2187 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. North Poulner is located near the city of Salisbury, which is about 14.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains around North Poulner, and Hampshire beyond
Being a residential suburb, North Poulner has the same vans as surrounding areas — Hangersley, Blashford — right through BH postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts BH24 3, and the van arrives quickest.
The car doesn't need to shift. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Ringwood Health and Leisure, a lay-by on the way to Toad Corner, a driveway. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Carvers Clubhouse, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The short version for North Poulner drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever across Hampshire: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.