How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Red Hill
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Red Hill, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Red Hill and Ensbury run, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, again and again. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Red Hill?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Wimborne Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Crown.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as readily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Muscliff or the middle of Red Hill, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Northbourne or a forecourt around Red Hill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Bournemouth? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Dorset, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Portswood Drive.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- Both behind one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Red Hill already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Asda Express or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own driveway in Red Hill, leave the car where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M27 — under 25 miles out of Red Hill — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Red Hill.
When our technicians arrive around Red Hill, what takes place?
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Moordown Baptist Church, or outside The Epiphany School. The answers decide this work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. On the call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Then that tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Red Hill
Red Hill is a suburban area in Dorset, situated near the coast and characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Red Hill sits at a relatively low elevation of 23 metres, looking out towards the sea. Red Hill is located near other nearby places such as Muscliff, Muscliffe, and Moordown, and is within commuting distance of larger cities like Salisbury. Red Hill has a population of around 5892 residents.
AdBlue drains around Red Hill and across Dorset
Throughout BH postcodes, the vans covering Red Hill — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Moordown and Muscliffe included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting BH10 7.
No need to shift the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Holy Epiphany Church, a lay-by on the way to Stour Valley Local Nature Reserve, a drive. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Kingfisher Barn Visitor Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Red Hill people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Dorset.