Stanpit: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Stanpit. Reading before the event? In that case the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many current diesels on the roads around Stanpit and Wick carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from its own tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what filler to use. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Stanpit?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The car 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 Harbour Crescent, or heading home in the car park outside The Nelson Tavern.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Third, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. It takes seconds, whether out in Mudeford or bang in the centre of Stanpit.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Stanpit forecourt or a driveway out in Friars Cliff, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Christchurch's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever it is around Dorset — a routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Stanpit.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Stanpit?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Shell, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive around Stanpit, leave it where it stands.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. On the M27, under 15 miles from Stanpit, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Stanpit makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Southampton — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Stanpit, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Mudeford Junior School, near Stanpit Village Hall or on your own drive. Those replies decide the work and the quote, and so we ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it is left. Filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and confirm that it's running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need about half an hour after we are there. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your insurance while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Stanpit, briefly
Stanpit is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Mudeford and Christchurch. Stanpit lies on the shores of Christchurch Harbour, with its residential areas predominantly consisting of detached housing. Stanpit is close to the nearby villages of Purewell and Somerford, and is within commuting distance of the city of Southampton.
Stanpit and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout BH postcodes, the teams covering Stanpit — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Somerford and Purewell included. Quickest of all: quote a BH23 3 postcode to the van.
There's no need to shift your car. Wherever it sits — near Girl Guide Hut, on a layby en route to Stanpit Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. Awkward to explain, like the back of Tuttons Well? By a county line? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
In short, for Stanpit motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Dorset, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.