West Town: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around West Town. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about West Town and South Hayling carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the 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.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in West Town?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Grayland Close before work, or in the car park outside The West Town Inn on the way home.
New-to-you vehicles are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as easily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. Newtown or the middle of West Town: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Sea View or a forecourt around West Town.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many motors show what goes in each inlet right there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check when you pick up a rental or company car — at Fratton's car park, say — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of James Close.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in West Town?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the motor remains unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
Ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the JET, the Esso or somewhere else. On your own drive in West Town? So the car stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. West Town sits under 5 miles from the Waterlooville Bypass; on it, use the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Portsmouth, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across West Town.
West Town: what happens when our technicians arrive
By Mengham Infant School, near The Bridge Church or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. What fluid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the replies set both work and price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the motor has not run take roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About West Town and where it is
West Town is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, with an elevation of approximately 6 metres above sea level. West Town sits near the city of Portsmouth, about 4.5 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Newtown and Westfield. West Town is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. West Town is situated within the larger South East region of England, about 62 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around West Town and across Hampshire
Over PO postcodes, our vans covering West Town — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, Gable Head and Westfield included. A postcode starting PO11 0 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near Station Theatre, or a layby on the way to Legion Field. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Funland Hayling Island.
The short version for West Town drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.