Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Tidworth: Why It Happens
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around South Tidworth, catching it before the motor runs usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads about South Tidworth and Perham Down carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of vehicles 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 topped up at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in South Tidworth: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Station Road, or heading home in the car park at Ram Inn.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. Whether it takes place in Tidworth Camp or the middle of South Tidworth, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Shipton Bellinger or a forecourt around South Tidworth, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Grateley? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere in Wiltshire, 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 Ashdown Terrace.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Discover at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in South Tidworth already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Esso, Murco or another — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around South Tidworth.
Already started? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. The next junction means where to come off if you're on the M4, under 25 miles from South Tidworth. Distance counts — a short hop across South Tidworth is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Salisbury — so tell us roughly how far it went.
South Tidworth: what takes place when our technicians get there
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Clarendon Junior School (Clarendon Federation), close to Tidworth Leisure Centre or on your own driveway. The replies determine this work and our quote, and so we ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote by phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we go, we start the car and make sure that it's running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About South Tidworth
South Tidworth is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated near the River Avon and close to the military base at Tidworth Camp. South Tidworth sits at an elevation of around 120 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. South Tidworth is located near the town of Tidworth and the smaller settlement of North Tidworth, and is approximately 12.8 miles from the city of Salisbury.
AdBlue drains about South Tidworth, and Wiltshire beyond
Tidworth and North Tidworth are among the towns around South Tidworth, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over SP postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a SP9 7 postcode to the van.
Your car doesn't need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Clive House Plantation, a side street close to Tidworth Garrison Theatre: our technicians drain the car where it sits. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Holy Trinity, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For South Tidworth motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Wiltshire.