Combe: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Stop here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where the vehicle stands around Combe, is normally all it needs when found before the motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads round Combe and Sherford carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. Far less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Combe: how it occurs
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Popplestone Park, or on the way home in the car park outside The Foxhound.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Brixton or the middle of Combe, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Combe forecourt or a driveway over in Blackpool, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you collect a hire car or company car — from Plymouth's car park, say — not once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever around Devon, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Court View.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop once the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently through its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm your diesel filler remained closed throughout. After that, start the car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Combe?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Valero, Asda or another — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Combe.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then turn off. The next junction means where to leave if you're on the M5, under 50 miles from Combe. About how far did it go? Crossing Combe is less a job than a run of under 5 miles to Plymouth, so tell us.
When our engineers get there in Combe, what occurs?
The van comes to the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near St Mary, or outside St Mary's Church of England Primary School. What liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those answers set the work and price. On the call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of that clears away unaided, however long it sits. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before we go, we fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Combe, for a moment
Combe is a suburban area situated on the coast of Devon, approximately 4.7 miles from Plymouth. Combe sits at an elevation of 57 metres, overlooking the surrounding coastline. Combe is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Combe is close to nearby places such as Brixton, Spriddlestone, and Elburton, and is home to around 1166 residents.
Combe and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Combe is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Spriddlestone and Elburton among them, across the PL postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting PL8 2.
No need to move your car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Higher Brixton Down Plantation, a side street near Cylinder Bridge: our engineers drain the car where it stands. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Old railway building, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Combe motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across Devon.