Chapel: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Chapel, catching it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Chapel and St Stephens carry, with diesel feeding your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
There is a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Chapel
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Upper Chapel before work, or in the car park outside Westgate Inn on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a strange vehicle.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. Whether it takes place in Launceston or the middle of Chapel, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Chapel forecourt or a drive out in Kensey Valley Meadow, spend a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Gunnislake? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Cornwall the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — not hurried on the side of Chapel Hill.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly. It works.
- Both behind a single flap? Then make sure the cap on the diesel side stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look again that your diesel cap never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Chapel?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, BP or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own drive around Chapel is the place it stays.
When your engine has run by now, stop safely then turn the vehicle off. The next junction is the place to leave if you're on the M5, under 50 miles from Chapel. Distance matters — a short hop across Chapel is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Plymouth — so say about how far it went.
What happens when we turn up in Chapel
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it by St Catherine's CofE Primary School, beside Kitchen and Moot Hall or on your own drive, the van comes to it. Which fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies decide both work and price. During the call itself, you are told our quote — before anything else.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is drained. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears out unaided, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Before we go, we start the engine and check that it is running smoothly.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Chapel and where it is
Chapel is a suburban area in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 144 metres, approximately 20 miles north of Plymouth. Chapel sits near the towns of Launceston and Newport, and is part of the wider area surrounding Plymouth. Chapel has a population of around 2331 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Chapel included
Over PL postcodes, our teams that cover Chapel — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Newport and St Thomas among them. A postcode starting PL15 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Draining happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Southgate Arch and gatehouse, or a layby on the way to Launceston Castle. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Great Hall.
In short, for Chapel people
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Cornwall.