How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Pennington
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Upper Pennington. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Upper Pennington and Lymington carry, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Upper Pennington: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Torreyana Gardens before work, or in the car park at The Lion & Lamb on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is strange. 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 resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Upper Pennington or out in Pennington.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Mount Pleasant or a forecourt around Upper Pennington.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, 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 Lymington Town, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across Hampshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Pinetops Close, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
Upper Pennington: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Shell, the Asda Express or somewhere else. Your own drive in Upper Pennington is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit means the place to come off when you are on the M27, under 15 miles from Upper Pennington. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Southampton, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Upper Pennington.
Our arrival around Upper Pennington, and what occurs next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Primary School - the Learning Federation Partnership of Schools, close to Saint Mark's or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Once your filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel goes in, and then the vehicle gets tested. Your engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we leave.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Upper Pennington
Upper Pennington is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, with an elevation of 27 metres above sea level. Upper Pennington sits near the cities of Southampton and Lymington, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Pennington, Buckland, and Everton. Upper Pennington has a population of approximately 1680 residents, who mostly reside in detached housing. Upper Pennington is situated about 81 miles southwest of London, making it a relatively distant commuter town.
Upper Pennington and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over SO postcodes, the vans that cover Upper Pennington — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Everton and Buckland included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting SO41 8.
The vehicle remains put. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a road by Lymington Health and Leisure Centre, or a layby on the way to Pennington Common. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Efford House.
In short, for Upper Pennington people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Hampshire.