How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Waltham
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in North Waltham. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around North Waltham and Cocksford Down run, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in North Waltham
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Yew Tree Lane before work, or in the car park at The Fox on the way home.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of North Waltham or out in Popham.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt in North Waltham or a drive out in Pardown. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in each filler right there.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Micheldever.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Hampshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Church Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish when the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using its own spout.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around North Waltham already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around North Waltham.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Come off the M3 — under a mile out of North Waltham — at the next exit. A short hop across North Waltham is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
North Waltham: what takes place when our engineers arrive
By North Waltham Primary School, near Saint Michael's Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set the work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. More than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it clears out on its own, however long it is left. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About North Waltham
North Waltham is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 116 metres, approximately 11.5 miles from Winchester. North Waltham has a population of around 559 people, predominantly living in detached houses. North Waltham is close to nearby villages such as Popham, Steventon, and Dummer, and is about 50.4 miles from London.
North Waltham and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
North Waltham is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Steventon and Dummer among them, across the RG postcode area. Quote a postcode that starts RG25 2, and our van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a road by Rathbone Pavillion, or a lay-by towards Cuckoo Meadow. Guessing won't help behind Church of St. Nicholas, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for North Waltham drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.