AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sleepers Hill: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. In Sleepers Hill, catching it before your motor turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Sleepers Hill and Badger Farm carry, with diesel for the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think which filler it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Sleepers Hill?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Kerrfield, or on the way home in the car park at The County Arms.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
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. West Hill or the middle of Sleepers Hill: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Weeke or a forecourt in Sleepers Hill, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Winchester? Check with whoever drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Hampshire the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never rushed beside Romsey Road at the roadside.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Sleepers Hill: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Don't switch your 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 that tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Murco, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Sleepers Hill.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Sleepers Hill sits under 3 miles from the M3; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Sleepers Hill is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 3 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Sleepers Hill
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Western Church of England Primary School, near Make a Difference - Greta Thunberg or on your own drive. Those answers settle this work and our quote, and so our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. On the call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians start the car and confirm that it's running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Sleepers Hill, for a moment
Sleepers Hill is a suburban area situated near the city of Winchester in Hampshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Sleepers Hill sits at an elevation of around 116 metres, close to the nearby areas of West Hill and Fulflood. Sleepers Hill is located approximately 1.1 miles from Winchester city centre, making it a convenient residential location. Sleepers Hill has a population of around 5763 people, according to recent estimates.
Sleepers Hill and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Sleepers Hill is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Stanmore and Fulflood among them, across the SO postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SO22 5.
The vehicle does not need to move. The drain happens right there, whether a drive, a street near University Chapel, or a lay-by towards Royal Winchester Golf Club. Guessing doesn't help behind Martial Rose Library, close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Sleepers Hill motorists: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere around Hampshire.