--- title: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Alphington: Explained canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/alphington-devon/ location: Alphington county: Devon latitude: 50.699640 longitude: -3.533620 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-28 --- # AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Alphington: How It Happens and How to Stop It Leave your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Alphington. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened. ## AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers Plenty of modern diesels in St Thomas, like those in Alphington, run on two fluids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own. Separate tanks, separate fillers. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two. ## How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Alphington? Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up at once. Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Chudleigh Road, or heading home in the car park outside New Inn. Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not. No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Alphington or out in Marsh Barton. ## The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in The Quay or a forecourt in Alphington. - Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't. - Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one. - Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles mark which belongs in which filler right there. - The handbook shows where it is if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet. - Whoever had it before knows. Check as you collect a rental or fleet car — at Marsh Barton's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on. ## AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Devon that is. - Not in a rush on the side of Ide Lane, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first. - Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick. - Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle. - Finish when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout. - Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off. Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to stage five. ## AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Alphington? Brief list, then. Top of it: your motor stays off. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from. If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Sainsbury's or the Valero, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. Your own drive around Alphington is where it should stay. Already started? Stop when it is sensible, then turn off. Come off the M5 — under 3 miles out of Alphington — at the first junction. A short hop across Alphington is a smaller job than a run towards Exeter, under 3 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went. ## Alphington: what occurs when our technicians get there Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Alphington Primary School, near St Michael and All Angels or on your own driveway. The answers determine the work and our quote, so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off before you've had our quote by phone. After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle gets tested. Next our engineers start the engine and check it runs smoothly before we leave. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies. ## About Alphington, briefly Alphington is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Exeter in Devon, sitting alongside the River Exe at an elevation of around 18 metres. Alphington is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is situated near other local places such as Marsh Barton and Ide. Alphington has a population of approximately 3147 residents and is close to the city centre of Exeter, being only 1.6 miles away. Alphington benefits from its riverside setting, with the River Exe flowing nearby. ## Alphington and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area Shillingford Abbot and Ide are among the towns near Alphington, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over EX postcodes. Fastest of all: give a EX2 8 postcode to the van. The car stays where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Alphington Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Pinces Gardens, a drive. Assuming doesn't help behind Alphington Village Hall, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check. ## For Alphington drivers, the short version Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Devon, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.