Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clyst Heath: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Clyst Heath. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many modern diesels around St Loyes, like those in Clyst Heath, run on two liquids; the engine takes only your diesel. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Clyst Heath?
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Baxter Close before work, or in the car park outside The Blue Ball on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode follows.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Clyst Heath or out in Clyst St Mary.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Clyst Heath or a driveway over in Countess Wear. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Digby & Sowton.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is across Devon — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Knights Crescent.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Clyst Heath?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel 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 your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Tesco, BP or any forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear when asked. On your own drive in Clyst Heath? Then the vehicle stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. Clyst Heath sits under a mile from the M5; there, take the first exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Clyst Heath is a smaller job than heading under 3 miles to Exeter — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Clyst Heath, and what takes place next
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own driveway, beside Romano-British settlement, or by Clyst Heath Nursery and Community Primary School. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run, because those answers decide the work and the quote. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, we start the engine and make sure that it's running smoothly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians are there. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Clyst Heath
Clyst Heath is a suburban area located near the city of Exeter in Devon, sitting at an elevation of 34 metres in a coastal setting. Clyst Heath is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. Clyst Heath is close to nearby places such as Clyst St Mary and Bishops Clyst, and is situated approximately 2.7 miles from Exeter. Clyst Heath has a population of around 3155 people.
Clyst Heath and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Clyst Heath is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Bishops Clyst and Heavitree among them, across the EX postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EX2 7.
Moving your car isn't necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to David Lloyd Clubs, a lay-by on the way to Ludwell Valley Park, a drive. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Sandy Park Stadium, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Clyst Heath people
Read the cap before you pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Devon.