Southfields: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your vehicle sits in Southfields. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels around Thorplands, like those in Southfields, run on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Southfields
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off Crabb Tree Drive before work, or in the car park at The Gallery on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. Round Spinney or the heart of Southfields: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Southfields forecourt or a drive out in Overstone, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Northampton? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Northamptonshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Faringdon Court.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Southfields already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Shell, the Tesco or anywhere else. At home in Southfields? Then your car stays where it is.
Already run? Pull over once it is sensible, then turn off. The next exit is the place to leave when you're on the M1, under 10 miles from Southfields. Distance counts — a quick hop across Southfields is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Milton Keynes — so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers arrive around Southfields, what takes place?
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by Overstone Primary School, near St Nicholas or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is cleared and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Next we fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Southfields
Southfields is a suburban area in Northamptonshire, situated inland at an elevation of 94 metres. Southfields lies approximately 16.6 miles from Milton Keynes and 61.1 miles from London, with nearby places including Round Spinney, Goldings, and Overstone Lodge. Southfields has a population of around 3004 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing.
AdBlue drains around Southfields, and Northamptonshire beyond
Goldings and Overstone Lodge are among the places around Southfields, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over NN postcodes. A postcode starting NN3 5 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street near Community Room, a lay-by on the way to Brittons Drive Open Space, a drive. Guessing won't help behind Thorplands Community Hub, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Southfields motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Northamptonshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.