Colyton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Keep the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, carried out right where the car sits around Colyton, is normally what it takes if caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Colyton and Whitford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Colyton?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Church Street, or heading home in the car park outside The Colcombe Castle.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, as well. Hire cars, new cars and company motors put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, carries on. Kingsdon or the heart of Colyton: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in St Dympnas or a forecourt in Colyton.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what goes in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Axminster.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Market Place, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have found your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Colyton?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it's the Gulf or the Tower Services, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Colyton.
Where the engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Colyton sits under 25 miles from the M5; there, take the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Colyton is a smaller job than driving under 25 miles to Exeter — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Colyton, and what occurs next
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside Colyton Primary Academy, beside Colyton Heritage Centre or at home, our van travels to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Next we start it and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Colyton and where it is
Colyton is a small town in East Devon, situated near the coast and close to the River Coly. Colyton sits at an elevation of 21 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and nearby villages such as Kingsdon and Colyford. Colyton has a population of approximately 2261 people, with a predominance of detached housing. Colyton is located 20.2 miles from Exeter and 138.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Colyton included
Colyton is a coastal town, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Colyford and Holyford among them, across the EX postcode area. Give a postcode beginning EX24 6, and our van gets there fastest.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a road near St Andrew's Church, or a lay-by on the way to Road Green. Guessing won't help behind Colyton Library, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
For Colyton drivers, the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Devon, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.