AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Basing: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the engine has not turned, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle is around Old Basing. Reading in advance? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Old Basing and Eastrop carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars share a single flap for both, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Old Basing?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Chestnut Bank, or outside Bolton Arms on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: an unfamiliar car.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. It takes seconds, whether in Little Basing or right in the centre of Old Basing.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Old Basing forecourt or a driveway over in Chineham, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- On many cars, size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Basingstoke? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Hampshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Old Basing already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: your motor stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. AdBlue doesn't 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 thin it.
On a forecourt — Tesco, Texaco or another — the attendants will usually help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own driveway around Old Basing is where it should stay.
Already run? Stop once it is safe, then switch off. On the M3, under a mile from Old Basing, that means the next exit. A short hop across Old Basing is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Old Basing: what happens when we turn up
Outside St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Aided Junior School, near St Mary's or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — before dispatch.
Then the tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more here than with petrol. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About Old Basing
Old Basing is a small village situated on the banks of the River Loddon in Hampshire, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached homes. Old Basing has a population of around 631 residents and is located near the villages of Little Basing and Hatch. Old Basing sits at an elevation of 76 metres, close to the M3 motorway and within commuting distance of London, approximately 42.8 miles away. Old Basing is also near the larger town of Basingstoke, but is distinct from it, with its own character and setting near Daneshill.
Old Basing and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Old Basing is a village, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Hatch and Daneshill among them, across the RG postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting RG24 7.
No need to move your car. We drain it where it is — a side street close to War Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Old Basing and Lychpit Recreation Ground, a drive. Assuming won't help at the back of New House (remains of), on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
Old Basing motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Hampshire.