How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chichacott
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Chichacott. Here in advance? Then the rest covers why it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels in Okehampton, as well as Chichacott, carry on two fluids; the motor takes only the diesel. The exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Chichacott: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Chichacott Road, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Whether it occurs in Stockley Hamlet or the middle of Chichacott, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Belstone Corner or a forecourt in Chichacott.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Okehampton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever across Devon the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside Metherall Field at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to step five.
Chichacott: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Keep your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Texaco, MacCullock's Garage or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Chichacott.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Chichacott lies under 25 miles from the M5; there, take the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Chichacott.
Chichacott: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St James Church of England Primary and Nursery School, near Roman Vicus or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and if it's run — so we ask. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Chichacott and where it is
Chichacott is a small locality in inland Devon, situated approximately 195 metres above sea level. Chichacott lies near several other rural settlements, including Stockley Hamlet, Brightley, and Corscombe, and is about 19.6 miles from the city of Exeter. Chichacott has a population of around 619 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Chichacott is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 174.9 miles.
AdBlue drains around Chichacott and across Devon
Chichacott is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Brightley and Corscombe among them, across the EX postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EX20 1.
No need to shift the vehicle. Anywhere it stands — near WW2 Navy Storage Areas, in a layby en route to Tappers Meadow Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Okehampton Library, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Chichacott people
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Devon.