Stakes: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stakes. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Stakes and Bedhampton run, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Stakes
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Jasmine Grove, or at Fox and Hounds on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second factor: a strange vehicle.
No part stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Purbrook or the middle of Stakes, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Stakes forecourt or a drive out in Leigh Park, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's 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 Bedhampton's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Hampshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Woodsedge.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — making sure your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to step five.
Stakes: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Brief list, then. Top of it: the engine remains unstarted. Leave your ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself starts your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help push the car away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Asda, the Shell or anywhere else. Your own drive in Stakes is where it should stay.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then switch off. The next junction means the place to come off if you are on the A3(M), under a mile from Stakes. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Stakes.
When we turn up in Stakes, what occurs?
Our van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, near Waterlooville Library and Learning Centre, or outside Springwood Infant School. We ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers determine the work and our quote. No one sets off until you have had our quote over the phone.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it is left. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Next we start it and check it runs correctly before leaving.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for an 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, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Stakes
Stakes is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the coast and approximately 6 miles north of Portsmouth. Stakes sits at an elevation of around 42 metres, with its terraced housing stock reflecting the area's development as a residential community. Stakes is located near other suburban areas such as Purbrook, Waterlooville, and Crookhorn, and is about 58 miles south-west of London.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Stakes included
Waterlooville and Crookhorn are among the towns near Stakes, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout PO postcodes. A postcode starting PO7 8 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move your car. Anywhere it sits — beside Sacred Heart, in a lay-by heading to Neville's Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Waterrlooville Columns? Close to a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
For Stakes people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it stands, anywhere in Hampshire: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.