AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Polygon: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Polygon, is normally what it needs when found before your motor runs. The remainder of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels in Kingsland Place, as well as Polygon, carry on two liquids; your engine gets only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It's in the gap that the error happens.
Polygon: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Cumberland Place before work, or in the car park at The Mayflower Village on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
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. Southampton or the middle of Polygon: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Hill or a forecourt in Polygon.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Ask 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 outside Southampton Central.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Hampshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Havelock Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Polygon?
Don't start your engine: that is where the short order of things begins. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Texaco, the BP or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive in Polygon, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then switch off. Leave the M271 — under 3 miles out of Polygon — at the first junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Southampton, under a mile away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Polygon.
Our arrival around Polygon, and what takes place next
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether outside Springhill Catholic Primary School, near Mayflower Theatre or at home, our van travels to it. Those answers determine this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. Nobody heads out until you have heard the quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Polygon itself
Polygon is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton. Polygon sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres, with its predominant housing consisting of flats. Polygon is close to nearby places such as Bedford Place and Bellevue, and is part of the larger Southampton urban area.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Polygon included
Bedford Place and Bellevue are among the towns around Polygon, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over SO postcodes. Quickest of all: give a SO15 1 postcode for our van.
Shifting the car isn't necessary. The drain happens right there, be it a drive, a road near SeaCity Museum, or a layby on the way to West (Watts) Park. Tricky to explain, like the back of Southampton City Art Gallery? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
In short, for Polygon people
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.