Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Callington: Why It Happens
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Callington, finding it before your engine turns usually means draining and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of newer diesels seen around Callington and Newbridge carry another liquid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Callington?
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Church Street, perhaps outside The Bulls Head on the way home after work.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, nothing stops it. It's seconds, whether in Haye Fm or bang in the centre of Callington.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Trevigro or a forecourt in Callington, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The previous driver will know. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — from Gunnislake's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are across Cornwall — a simple routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of New Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Callington?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Tesco, Gulf or another forecourt will normally help to push your car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Callington.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the M5, under 50 miles from Callington. Mileage matters — a short hop across Callington makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Plymouth — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our engineers get there in Callington
By Callington Primary School, close to St Mary's Church or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. The replies determine this work and our quote, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes out unaided. Hence it counts more. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Callington itself
Callington is a town in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 153 metres, approximately 12 miles from Plymouth. Callington has a population of around 4845 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Callington sits near several smaller settlements, including Haye Fm, Frogwell, and Kelly Bray, in the rolling countryside of southeastern Cornwall.
Callington and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Frogwell and Kelly Bray are among the towns around Callington, a town, that the same teams cover, over PL postcodes. Quickest of all: quote a PL17 7 postcode for our van.
The car stays put. Wherever it sits — near Callington Town Hall, in a layby en route to Callington Cricket Club, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Callington Methodist Church.
Callington drivers: the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Cornwall.