Pamber Heath: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Pamber Heath. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many current diesels on the roads round Pamber Heath and Old Warren carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The error lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Pamber Heath?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Oakfield Road before work, or in the car park outside The Pelican heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
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 after it has started. Tadley Bottom or the middle of Pamber Heath: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Tadley or a forecourt around Pamber Heath.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show what goes in which filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Aldermaston, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush by Silchester Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pamber Heath?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains off. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Esso, Shell or another — the staff will normally help push the car away, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Pamber Heath, leave it where it is.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. The next junction means the place to leave if you're on the M4, under 10 miles from Pamber Heath. About how far did it go? Hopping across Pamber Heath is less work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Winchester, so tell us.
What takes place when we get there around Pamber Heath
Our van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Saint Luke's Church, or outside Silchester Church of England Primary School. What fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set both work and price. No one heads out until you've heard the quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. 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 the flush matters more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Next we fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Pamber Heath itself
Pamber Heath is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 105 metres. Pamber Heath lies near the historic town of Silchester and is close to other nearby places such as Tadley Bottom and Aldermaston Soke. Pamber Heath is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located approximately 22 miles from Winchester and 44 miles from London. Pamber Heath has a population of around 1556 residents.
AdBlue drains round Pamber Heath, and Hampshire beyond
Pamber Heath is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Aldermaston Soke and Silchester among them, across the RG postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting RG26 3.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Silchester Common, a side street close to Pamber Heath Gospel Hall: our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Salvation Army Church Tadley, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Pamber Heath people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire.