Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pokesdown
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Pokesdown, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — but many current diesels driven about Pokesdown and Iford carry a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Pokesdown?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
On a drive off Harcourt Road before work, or in the car park outside The Bell on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it occurs in West Southbourne or the middle of Pokesdown, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Holdenhurst or a forecourt in Pokesdown, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Anywhere around Dorset the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed by Cromwell Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pokesdown?
Don't start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, Tesco or any forecourt will usually help to push the car clear if asked. Your own drive in Pokesdown is the place it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. On the M27, under 25 miles from Pokesdown, that means the next junction. A short hop across Pokesdown is a smaller job than a run towards Southampton, under 25 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive in Pokesdown, what takes place?
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Pokesdown Community Primary School, close to Harcourt Hall or on your own driveway. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine the work and our quote. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. 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. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. After that our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Pokesdown itself
Pokesdown is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Pokesdown sits at an elevation of 33 metres, overlooking the English Channel, and is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings. Pokesdown is close to nearby places such as West Southbourne, Littledown, and Boscombe, and is approximately 21.9 miles from the city of Southampton. Pokesdown has a population of around 10021 residents.
AdBlue drains about Pokesdown, and Dorset beyond
Pokesdown is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Littledown and Boscombe among them, across the BH postcode area. Fastest of all: give a BH5 2 postcode to our van.
Shifting the car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Kings Park, a side street near Pokesdown Salvation Army: our engineers drain it where it stands. Assuming doesn't help behind Lockyer Hall, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Pokesdown drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Dorset: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.