How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Redbridge
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where the car stands around Redbridge, is normally all it needs if found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Redbridge and Hillyfields carry, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Redbridge?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Test Lane, perhaps at The Ship on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, whether in Totton or right in the heart of Redbridge.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Millbrook or a forecourt in Redbridge.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is if the filler is not next to your 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 — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Hampshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Gover Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The two under a single flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel filler stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, and look once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Redbridge already?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the Esso, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Redbridge, leave it where it is.
Where the engine has run already, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. Redbridge sits under a mile from the Nursling Spur Motorway; on it, take the next junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Redbridge makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards Southampton — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Redbridge, what takes place?
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, be it by Redbridge Primary School, beside All Saints, Redbridge or at home, the van travels to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since the replies set both work and price. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it is left. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Redbridge and where it is
Redbridge is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton and close to the New Forest. Redbridge lies at sea level and is characterized by flat housing, with the area being home to around 1940 residents. Redbridge is part of the larger Southampton urban area, with nearby places including Totton, Brokenford, and Eling.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Redbridge included
Brokenford and Eling are among the towns near Redbridge, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over SO postcodes. Quickest of all: give a SO16 9 postcode for the van.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near St Theresa of Child Jesus Church, on a layby en route to Redbridge Wharf Park, at home — that's where it is cleared. Assuming doesn't help behind Totton & Eling Community Centre, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Redbridge motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, anywhere around Hampshire: switch the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.