Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Whiteley: Why It Happens
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle sits around Whiteley, is normally what it needs if caught before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels near Whiteley and Titchfield Park run, with diesel for the engine. Your exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together under one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Whiteley: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Yew Tree Drive, or outside The Elm Tree on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, be it in Burridge or right in the heart of Whiteley.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Whiteley forecourt or a drive out in Sarisbury, take a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Swanwick? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever across Hampshire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hispano Avenue, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Whiteley?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself runs the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, BP or another — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Whiteley, leave the car where it stands.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Whiteley lies under a mile from the M27; there, take the first junction. A short hop across Whiteley is a smaller job than a run towards Southampton, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Whiteley: what takes place when we arrive
Wherever your car has stopped, be it by Whiteley Primary School, near Whiteley Community Centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those answers determine this work and our price, and so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. No one sets off until you've had the price by phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Whiteley itself
Whiteley is a locality in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 26 metres, approximately 6.6 miles from Southampton. Whiteley lies within the South East region of England, around 65 miles from London, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Burridge, Park Gate, and Segensworth. Whiteley has a population of around 2967 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
Whiteley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a small village, Whiteley shares its vans nearby places — Park Gate, Segensworth — all the way through PO postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a PO15 7 postcode for our van.
The vehicle stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Gull Coppice, a side street close to Whiteley Church: we drain the car where it is. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Meadowside Leisure Centre, on a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Whiteley people
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Hampshire: switch the car off and ring 0333 366 0103.