AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Swanmore: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Leave your engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Swanmore. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Swanmore and Hoe run, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of motors have a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The slip lives in that gap.
Swanmore: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Church Road, perhaps outside The Brickmakers on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
A spout-topped bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. Hill Grove or the middle of Swanmore: it is the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Dundridge or a forecourt in Swanmore, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Botley, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Anywhere in Hampshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of New Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read the cap.
- 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, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Swanmore?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, Premier or another — the attendants will normally help roll the vehicle away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Swanmore.
When the engine has run already, stop somewhere safe and switch the car off. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the M27, under 10 miles from Swanmore. A short hop across Swanmore is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Swanmore: what happens when we turn up
By Swanmore Church of England Aided Primary School, near Swanmore War Memorial or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so we ask. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters 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. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway 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 plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Swanmore, briefly
Swanmore is a village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 61 metres, approximately 9.9 miles from Winchester. Swanmore has a population of around 1137 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Swanmore is surrounded by nearby places such as Hill Grove, Hillpound, and Upper Swanmore, and is located about 59.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Swanmore and across Hampshire
As a rural village, Swanmore shares its vans nearby areas — Hillpound, Upper Swanmore — right across SO postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting SO32 2.
The car doesn't need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Saint Barnabas, a lay-by on the way to Green’s Wood, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Swanmore Methodist Church.
Swanmore people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere around Hampshire: switch it off and phone 0333 366 0103.