AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Combrew: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not run, it's emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Combrew. Here before the event? Then what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Combrew and Fremington run, with diesel for the engine. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place in Combrew?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a driveway off muddlebridge close before work, or in the car park outside Fox and Hounds heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and after the tip starts, no part stops it. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Muddlebridge or right in the heart of Combrew.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Combrew forecourt or a drive over in Brynsworthy, spend a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- On plenty of vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Barnstaple's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere around Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Muddlebridge close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm the diesel cap stayed shut the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Combrew already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the BP, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. Your own drive in Combrew is where it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Combrew, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Combrew is less work than a trip of under 50 miles to Exeter, so tell us.
Combrew: what happens when we get there
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Roundswell Community Primary Academy, close to St. Peter or on your own drive. What liquid got in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set both work and quote. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before anything else.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Testing is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and confirm that it is running smoothly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run need about half an hour after we arrive. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Combrew and where it is
Combrew is a locality situated on the riverside in Devon, with a relatively low elevation of 16 metres. Combrew lies near several nearby places, including Muddlebridge, Bickington, and Brynsworthy Park, and is approximately 34.8 miles from the city of Exeter. Combrew has a population of around 1018 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Combrew and across Devon
Throughout EX postcodes, our vans that cover Combrew — a small village — work the surrounding locations too, Brynsworthy Park and Bickington included. A postcode starting EX31 2 gets our van to you fastest.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Anywhere it sits — beside Sticklepath Methodist Church, in a layby heading to Queen Elizabeth 2 Playing Field, at home — that is where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Super Dad.
Combrew motorists: the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around Devon, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — and so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.