Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Carnyorth: Why It Happens
Leave the engine and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands around Carnyorth, is usually what it takes when caught before your engine runs. Here in advance? In that case what follows covers why it happens and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — but plenty of newer diesels driven around Carnyorth and Higher Boscaswell hold another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Carnyorth: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Carnyorth Hill before work, or in the car park outside Trewellard Arms on the way home.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether in Trewellard or bang in the heart of Carnyorth.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Pendeen or a forecourt in Carnyorth.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — from Penzance's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is across Cornwall — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Parc An Yorth.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Carnyorth?
Short order, then. First: the motor stays off. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Trewellard Garage, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Carnyorth.
Where your engine has been run by now, stop somewhere safe then switch it off. The next junction means where to leave when you are on the M5, over 50 miles from Carnyorth. A short hop across Carnyorth is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 50 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Carnyorth, and what happens next
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Carnyorth Education Centre, or by Pendeen School. What liquid got in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those answers set the work and price. No one heads out before you have heard our quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour after our engineers arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Carnyorth itself
Carnyorth is a small coastal hamlet in Cornwall, situated near the villages of Trewellard and Lower Trewellard. Carnyorth sits on the rugged coastline of western Cornwall, approximately 128 metres above sea level, and is characterized by its terraced housing. Carnyorth is located near the historic mining area of Botallack, and is within a short drive of the city of Truro. Carnyorth has a population of around 515 people, making it a small but distinct community in the region.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Carnyorth included
Over TR postcodes, the teams covering Carnyorth — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding spots too, Botallack and Lower Trewellard among them. Give a postcode beginning TR19 7, and our van arrives fastest.
The car does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Trewellard Common, a side street close to Higher Bal Engine and Boiler House: we drain the vehicle where it is. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Chimney Machine House Allen's Shaft? By a border? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
The short version for Carnyorth drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere across Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.