How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Northfields
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Northfields, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to the motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven about Northfields and South Down carry another fluid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, normally from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Northfields: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Bourne Lane, perhaps at Phoenix Inn on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar cars come next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company motors place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Twyford or right in the centre of Northfields.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Northfields forecourt or a driveway out in Compton End, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Shawford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever it is across Hampshire — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Dunfords Acre, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Northfields already?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Sainsbury's, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car away when asked. Your own drive around Northfields is the place it stays.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. The next exit is where to leave if you are on the M3, under a mile from Northfields. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Northfields makes a smaller job than heading under 3 miles towards Winchester — so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians get there around Northfields, what happens?
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Twyford St Mary's Church of England Primary School, close to Saint Mary's or on your own drive. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one heads out until you've had the price over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Northfields, for a moment
Northfields is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Winchester in Hampshire, sitting at an elevation of 51 metres near the River Itchen. Northfields is characterized by its semi-detached housing and quiet residential atmosphere, with nearby villages such as Twyford and Shawford. Northfields is situated close to the city of Winchester, approximately 2.7 miles away, and is also near Compton. Northfields has a population of around 967 residents.
Northfields and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Shawford and Compton are among the places near Northfields, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout SO postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a SO21 1 postcode for the van.
The vehicle remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Twyford Parish Hall, a lay-by on the way to Ballard Close, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Twyford Roman villa? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
The short version for Northfields motorists
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.