Winton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Winton, is normally all it takes when caught before your engine runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels driven round Winton and Talbot Village hold another liquid too. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Winton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Cardigan Road, perhaps at The Parkstone and Heatherlands on the way home that evening.
New-to-you motors come next, too. Rentals, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Winton or out in Meyrick Park.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Winton forecourt or a drive over in Moordown, spend a few seconds on these before any goes in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — from Bournemouth's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are around Dorset — a simple routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Wimborne Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Winton already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Esso, Asda Express or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Winton.
When the engine has been run already, pull over safely then turn it off. On the M27, under 25 miles from Winton, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Winton makes a smaller job than driving under 25 miles towards Salisbury — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Winton, and what takes place next
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether by St Luke's Church of England Primary School, near Trove or on your own drive, the van comes to it. What fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the answers decide the work and quote. On the call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. 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. The filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Winton
Winton is a suburban area in Dorset, situated near the coast and characterised by detached housing. Winton sits at an elevation of 38 metres, close to nearby places such as Meyrick Park and Talbot Woods. Winton is located near the city of Bournemouth, but is also within commuting distance of Salisbury, which is 23 miles away. Winton has a population of around 12,006 people, making it a sizable residential community.
AdBlue drains in Winton and across Dorset
Over BH postcodes, our vans that cover Winton — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Charminster and Talbot Woods included. A postcode starting BH9 2 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by The Salvation Army, or a lay-by towards Winton Library Garden. Guessing doesn't help behind Winton Baptist Church, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
For Winton motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Dorset.