Ropley: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor hasn't run, it is drained and fully cleaned where the car is around Ropley. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels around Ropley and North Street run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ropley: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Hale Close, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Gilbert Street or the middle of Ropley: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Ropley forecourt or a driveway over in Ropley Soke, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Alton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Hampshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Vicarage Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ropley already?
Short list, then. First: your motor stays off. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on 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 your tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Shell or the BP, ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive around Ropley? Then the car remains where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then turn off. Come off the M3 — under 10 miles out of Ropley — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Winchester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ropley.
Ropley: what occurs when our technicians arrive
By Ropley CofE Primary School, close to Ropley Village Hall or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is emptied. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Ropley, briefly
Ropley is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 121 metres, approximately 10 miles from Winchester and 50 miles from London. Ropley comprises predominantly detached housing and has a population of around 512 residents. Ropley is surrounded by nearby places such as Gilbert Street, Ropley Dean, and Swelling Hill, which contribute to the local community. Ropley remains a quiet residential area with a strong sense of rural character.
Ropley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over SO postcodes, the vans covering Ropley — a rural village — work the surrounding locations too, Swelling Hill and Ropley Dean among them. Quickest of all: quote a SO24 0 postcode to the van.
Moving your car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Ropley Recreation area, a side street close to Ropley Reading Rooms: our engineers drain the car where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of St Peter's? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
In short, for Ropley drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.