AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Shirley: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, leave the ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Old Shirley, catching it before the engine runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it happens and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels around Aldermoor, as well as Old Shirley, run on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every forecourt visit, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Old Shirley?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Warren Crescent, or outside The Ice House on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle 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.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It takes seconds, whether out in Shirley Warren or bang in the centre of Old Shirley.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Shirley Park or a forecourt in Old Shirley, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- 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 vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Millbrook (Hants)? Check with the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Hampshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not in a rush by Bracken Lane at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side is still shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Old Shirley?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Tesco or the Shell, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump. At home in Old Shirley? Then your car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M271, under 3 miles from Old Shirley, that means the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Old Shirley is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Southampton — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Old Shirley, and what happens next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it outside Shirley Warren Primary & Nursery School, near Shirley Warren Action Church or at home, the van comes to it. The replies decide the work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. Nobody heads out before you have had the quote over the phone.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Your engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Old Shirley
Old Shirley is a coastal locality in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton and overlooking the Solent Strait. Old Shirley has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Old Shirley is close to nearby places such as Shirley Warren, Coxford, and Maybush, and its residents are approximately 2 miles from Southampton's city centre. Old Shirley's population is around 5207 people, living in a relatively low-lying area with an average elevation of 24 metres.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Old Shirley included
Coxford and Maybush are among the towns around Old Shirley, a coastal area, that the same vans cover, over SO postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SO16 6.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Kingdom Hall, a lay-by on the way to Shirley Pond Park, a drive. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Peters Church? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
For Old Shirley drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Hampshire.