How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brillwater
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle is in Brillwater. Reading in advance? Then what follows explains how it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — but many modern diesels seen about Brillwater and Comfort carry a second liquid as well. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
There's a filler for each tank. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap to use. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Brillwater: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Trebarvah Road before work, or in the car park outside Cornish Arms on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a strange car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. It takes seconds, be it in Constantine or bang in the heart of Brillwater.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Brillwater or a driveway over in Polwheveral. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel inlet? In that case look below the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — at Penryn's car park, say — not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere across Cornwall the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Trebarvah Close, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
Brillwater: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start the motor: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at Gulf, Asda or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car away when you ask. Your own drive around Brillwater is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M5 — over 50 miles out of Brillwater — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Truro, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Brillwater.
Our arrival around Brillwater, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Constantine Primary School, close to St Constantine or on your own driveway. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run. No one sets off before you have heard the price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that matters 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. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Brillwater and where it is
Brillwater is a small suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the north coast of the South West region. Brillwater sits at an elevation of 91 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and close to nearby places such as Constantine and Brill. Brillwater is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Brillwater is located approximately 11 miles from Truro, the nearest city, and about 240 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Brillwater and across Cornwall
Being a residential suburb, Brillwater shares its vans nearby areas — Brill, Ponjeravah — all the way across TR postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting TR11 5 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Constantine Museum and Archive, or a lay-by on the way to Bosahan Wood. Tricky to explain, like the back of Piskey's Hall (Fogou)? Close to a border? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
The short version for Brillwater people
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Cornwall.