Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Buckland
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Buckland. Here before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of modern diesels seen round Buckland and Milber carry a second liquid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two together under one flap. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Buckland
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Haytor Drive before work, or in the car park at Passage House Inn on the way home.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a strange motor.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Buckland or out in Penninn.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Netherton or a forecourt around Buckland, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Newton Abbot.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Devon that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside Windsor Avenue on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Buckland: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things begins. Keep your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the petrol pump if you are on a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Tesco or somewhere else. On your own drive around Buckland? So the vehicle stays put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M5, under 15 miles from Buckland, that means the next exit. A short hop across Buckland is a smaller job than a run towards Exeter, under 15 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Buckland, and what happens next
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Buckland Community Centre, or outside Haytor View Community Primary School. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which fluid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your vehicle is tested. Before we go, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Buckland itself
Buckland is a suburban area in Devon, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 51 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Buckland lies near several other small settlements, including Penninn, Newtake, and Aller Park, and is approximately 13 miles from the city of Exeter. Buckland is part of the wider Exeter urban area, with the city being a major centre for employment and services. Buckland itself has a population of around 4021 residents.
AdBlue drains about Buckland, and Devon beyond
As a residential suburb, Buckland has the same vans as nearby places — Newtake, Aller Park — right through TQ postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a TQ12 4 postcode to the van.
There's no need to shift your car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Teignbridge District Council HQ, a lay-by on the way to Wildwoods Copse, a drive. Assuming doesn't help behind The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
The short version for Buckland people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Devon.