Three Legged Cross: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle stands in Three Legged Cross, is normally all it needs if caught before the motor runs. Here before the event? Then the rest explains why it happens and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your engine — but many newer diesels driven about Three Legged Cross and Woolsbridge hold another fluid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the fumes.
There's a filler for every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. Diesel gets filled on each filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Three Legged Cross?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Ringwood Road before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Crab Orchard or the middle of Three Legged Cross: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Three Legged Cross forecourt or a driveway over in Mannington, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in which filler just there.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Bournemouth? Ask the person who drove the car last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light comes on, wherever in Dorset, use this routine.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Juniper Close at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Leave your 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 is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Three Legged Cross already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Shell Verwood or another — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. Your own driveway in Three Legged Cross is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M27 — under 15 miles out of Three Legged Cross — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Three Legged Cross is smaller a job than a trip of under 25 miles to Salisbury, and so say.
Three Legged Cross: what occurs when we get there
Wherever the vehicle has stopped, whether by Three Legged Cross First and Nursery School, near All Saints Church or at home, our van travels to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, because the answers settle this work and our price. The quote is given on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we go.
If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Three Legged Cross and where it is
Three Legged Cross is a small locality in Dorset, situated inland at an elevation of 27 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Three Legged Cross lies near several other small settlements, including Crab Orchard and Horton Common, and is within a short distance of Lower Mannington. Three Legged Cross is located approximately 15.7 miles from Salisbury and about 88.6 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community. Three Legged Cross has a population of around 866 residents.
AdBlue drains about Three Legged Cross, and Dorset beyond
As a small village, Three Legged Cross has the same vans as nearby places — Horton Common, Lower Mannington — right through BH postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quote a postcode that starts BH21 6, and our van gets there fastest.
Moving the car is not needed. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a road by Three Legged Cross Village Hall, or a layby towards Lower Common. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Three Legged Cross people: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Dorset.