Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pikes Hill: Why It Occurs
Keep your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your car sits around Pikes Hill, is normally all it needs when caught before your engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Pikes Hill and Goose Green carry, with diesel for your engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler to use. It's in the gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Pikes Hill
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Pikes Hill before work, or in the car park outside Waterloo Arms on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar car.
No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Custards or the heart of Pikes Hill: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Bank or a forecourt in Pikes Hill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Ashurst New Forest, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Hampshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Westwood Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read it.
- The two behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five altogether.
Pikes Hill: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the Esso or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Pikes Hill.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction is where to come off when you're on the M27, under 3 miles from Pikes Hill. About how far did it go? Crossing Pikes Hill is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles to Southampton, so tell us.
Pikes Hill: what happens when our engineers arrive
By St Michael and All Angels CofE Infant School, near Northerwood House or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel 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. The filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. The motor is started next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need about half an hour after we are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Pikes Hill and where it is
Pikes Hill is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the riverside and close to the New Forest. Pikes Hill has a relatively low elevation of 48 metres and is located near several nearby places, including Custards, Lyndhurst, and Emery Down. Pikes Hill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is home to a population of around 802 residents. Pikes Hill is also within commuting distance to major cities, with Southampton just 7.9 miles away and London approximately 76.5 miles distant.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Pikes Hill included
Throughout SO postcodes, the vans that cover Pikes Hill — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Emery Down and Lyndhurst included. A postcode starting SO43 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it sits — beside Our Lady of the Assumption and Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, on a layby en route to Foldsgate Inclosure, at home — that's where it is drained. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Michael and All Angels.
Pikes Hill people: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, wherever in Hampshire: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.