Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Charles Bottom: Why It Happens
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Charles Bottom, finding it before your motor turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Not one fluid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels near Charles Bottom and Elwell run, with diesel feeding the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Charles Bottom?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Hobbs Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. East Buckland or the heart of Charles Bottom: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Charles Bottom forecourt or a drive over in West Buckland, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Umberleigh, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere around Devon, use this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Blakewell Hill.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look once more — making sure your diesel filler stayed shut throughout. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is off limits.
Charles Bottom: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at JJ Garages, Esso or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle away when asked. Your own driveway around Charles Bottom is the place it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Charles Bottom lies under 25 miles from the M5; there, use the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Charles Bottom.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Charles Bottom
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Brayford Academy, near St Michael's Church or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those replies determine this work and the price. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. Hence it matters more. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy 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. It's worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Charles Bottom, for a moment
Charles Bottom is a small locality in inland Devon, situated at an elevation of 201 metres, approximately 28 miles from Exeter. Charles Bottom is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Charles Bottom sits within a network of small settlements, including nearby East Buckland and Newtown.
AdBlue drains around Charles Bottom and across Devon
Over EX postcodes, the vans covering Charles Bottom — a small village — work the surrounding locations too, Charles and Newtown included. Give a postcode that starts EX32 7, and our van arrives quickest.
The car stays where it is. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Nadrid Copse, a side street close to St John The Baptist: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St Peter, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Charles Bottom drivers: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Devon, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103.