Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brixton: Why It Occurs
Pause reading for a moment when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where the car stands around Brixton, is normally what it takes if found before your motor runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that's what many newer diesels around Brixton and Spriddlestone carry, with diesel feeding your engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It's in that gap that the slip happens.
Brixton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Elliotts Hill, or heading home in the car park at The Foxhound.
Unfamiliar motors come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
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 once it has started. Whether it occurs in Combe or the middle of Brixton, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Blackpool or a forecourt in Brixton.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually 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. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Plymouth? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is around Devon — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of A379, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Brixton?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Valero or the Asda, ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the pump. Your own drive in Brixton is the place it stays.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. Brixton sits under 50 miles from the M5; on it, use the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Brixton makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Plymouth — so tell us about how far it went.
Brixton: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Mary's Church of England Primary School, close to St Mary or on your own drive. Those answers decide this work and our price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. No one heads out before you've had our quote by phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. That is why it matters more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Brixton, briefly
Brixton is a small coastal village in Devon, situated near the city of Plymouth and overlooking the sea from a height of around 55 metres. Brixton has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Brixton is close to other nearby villages such as Combe and Sherford, and is within easy reach of the larger urban centre of Plymouth.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Brixton included
Brixton is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Sherford and Elburton among them, across the PL postcode area. A postcode starting PL8 2 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car stays where it is. Anywhere it sits — near Cylinder Bridge, on a lay-by heading to Higher Brixton Down Plantation, at home — that is where it gets drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Ruined Bridge, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Brixton drivers: the short version
Tip nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Devon, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.