South Hayling: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here for a moment if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around South Hayling. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around South Hayling and Westfield run, with diesel feeding the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. The slip lives in that gap.
South Hayling: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Mengham Road, or at The Olive Leaf on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where 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 tip after it has started. It's seconds, be it in Sea View or right in the centre of South Hayling.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in West Town or a forecourt in South Hayling, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what belongs in each filler just there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Fratton's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Hampshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hollow Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around South Hayling already?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains off. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — JET, Esso or another — the attendants will usually help push the car away, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in South Hayling, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. On the Waterlooville Bypass, under 5 miles from South Hayling, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across South Hayling.
When our engineers get there in South Hayling, what takes place?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Mengham Junior School, near South Hayling United Reformed Church or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the answers decide the work and the price. No one heads out until you've had our price over the phone.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. Before leaving, we fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided your motor has not run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About South Hayling, for a moment
South Hayling is a coastal locality in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and overlooking the Solent Strait. South Hayling has a low elevation of around 6 metres above sea level and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Sea View, Mengham, and Gable Head. South Hayling is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature.
South Hayling and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout PO postcodes, the vans that cover South Hayling — a coastal area — work the surrounding places too, Gable Head and Mengham among them. A postcode starting PO11 9 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Hayling Christian Centre, a lay-by on the way to Legion Field, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Hayling Island Library.
For South Hayling people, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere around Hampshire: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.