AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bugle: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the vehicle is in Bugle. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what plenty of newer diesels around Bugle and Rosevear carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There is a filler for each tank. 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 all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bugle: how it occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Rosevear Road, or outside The Bugle Inn on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange vehicle.
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. Carnsmerry or the middle of Bugle: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Bugle or a drive out in Hallew. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Cornwall — a routine to follow.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Roche Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bugle?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the motor. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Shell or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Bugle.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M5, over 50 miles from Bugle, that means 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 Bugle.
What happens when we get there in Bugle
Outside Bugle School, close to Library of Things or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Those replies decide this work and our quote, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. During the phone call itself, you are told our quote — before dispatch.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more here than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. Next we start the car and check it runs smoothly before we go.
Unrun vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Bugle
Bugle is a village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 147 metres, and is located near the villages of Carnsmerry, Molinnis, and Gracca. Bugle has a population of approximately 2225 residents and comprises predominantly semi-detached housing. Bugle is positioned about 14.6 miles from Truro, the nearest city, and is around 217.1 miles from London. Bugle remains a small, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Bugle included
Bugle is a rural village, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Molinnis and Gracca among them, across the PL postcode area. A postcode starting PL26 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street near Crossroads Community Hall, a lay-by on the way to Common Lands, a drive. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Bugle Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Bugle motorists: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around Cornwall.