AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Cruwys Morchard, and What to Do Next
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if the motor has been run since it got in. Anywhere the car stands — Templeton Bridge, Cruwys Morchard — don't run a motor that hasn't been started yet. Normally this is emptying and thoroughly flushing it right there around Cruwys Morchard — so leave your ignition and engine off and ring 0333 366 0103. When your engine has run, stop somewhere safe straight away, then switch the vehicle off. The job is bigger, but the first stage is the same.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever in Devon it happened.
Cruwys Morchard forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Only now, nozzle still in your hand, it dawns on you that the cap you took off was the wrong one, there at the pump. Perhaps you are at the Morrisons, maybe at the Shell, possibly somewhere else in Cruwys Morchard.
Meaning? Finding out on the forecourt is the best it gets. No pump has pulled it through, so the AdBlue stays only inside your tank.
What to do: do not get back in and crank it to clear the petrol pump. Ring us from the forecourt after your car sits in a space — the attendants will lend a hand to roll it — then save the bottle. If it cannot be shifted, it can be drained at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home in Cruwys Morchard
Several days had gone by with the dash light on. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the drive, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look a second time at the cap. Homes just off B3137 are hit as much as anywhere else.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so no one moves the vehicle in the morning. Then ring. Out in Pennymoor or right here in Cruwys Morchard, the drain is done at your drive. Night-time empties outside a house are fine: the pumps are quiet.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving around Cruwys Morchard?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a short way after the top-up. Cruwys Morchard Hill, perhaps, or the way to Exeter — a trip of under 15 miles.
What it means: the fuel system has sucked the AdBlue in. Mileage decides how deep it gets: filter and lines to begin with, then the high-pressure pump and each injector. Every restart, like every mile, carries it on.
Do this: pull up somewhere sensible, then switch the engine off. Services farther on are too far: on the M5, under 10 miles out of Cruwys Morchard, take the next junction. No test starts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue will do. Call, saying what distance your car went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You have just driven the vehicle for days. Your own motor either does without AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, so nothing warned you the AdBlue inlet was right beside your diesel. Wherever you happen to be around Devon, any driver could slip up.
Put simply: an extra step on top of the cases above, and those turn on if it has run. Many hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
Next: ring the hire company or your fleet manager first, and then us — sorting it before our arrival is quicker. If you are stuck in the car park at Crediton, or by Holy Cross, whilst you wait for an answer, leave the vehicle off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Cruwys Morchard?
At times the honest answer is "I think so". Which cap came off, you cannot say; meanwhile the bottle weighs less than it ought to, and ammonia lingers by the filler. It might have been at a friend's drive in Withleigh, or rushing by Cheriton Fitzpaine Primary School on the school run.
Meaning? Spills around the inlet never touch your motor at all. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. You cannot tell which by turning the key, and doing so would suck in any AdBlue that is in your tank.
Do this: act as if it got in, and don't start your engine. Describe what you noticed on the phone. A clear tank checked is a better outcome than a run one drained.
Every AdBlue drain around Cruwys Morchard shares these stages
The work begins identically, whichever your case. Three things come once we reach the car — at a forecourt, a drive, a road by St Margaret's Church or the car park at Cruwys Arms: the fluid, the quantity, and if it has run. Those replies settle this work, and you hear the price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying the tank comes first, followed by a careful flush — more vital after urea than after petrol, because crystals and corrosion won't go on their own, however long you wait. Clean diesel is put in after the filter has been cleaned or replaced, and the car is then tested. Not started? Then roughly half an hour on site covers most jobs.
Last, we fire it up. Our check that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel comes before our engineers head off. We do the entire job where the car is, and lasting damage is very uncommon when it has been noticed soon. Nothing is taken upfront, payment is made on the day, and you get what your insurer asks for: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies cover misfuelling, so check yours while the van travels.
About Cruwys Morchard, for a moment
Cruwys Morchard is a small hamlet in inland Devon, situated at an elevation of 222 metres, approximately 12.5 miles from Exeter. Cruwys Morchard is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Cruwys Morchard lies near other local communities, including Pennymoor, Way Village, and Templeton, in the rolling countryside of the South West region.
Cruwys Morchard and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout EX postcodes, the teams covering Cruwys Morchard — a rural hamlet — reach nearby places too, Way Village and Templeton among them. A postcode starting EX16 8 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Stopped en route to Two Post Plantation, or right in the centre of Cruwys Morchard, your vehicle stays where it is — there's no need to shift it at all. We drain the car where it stands. Awkward to pin down? Close to Withleigh Church or a county line? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Your situation, summed up
Where it hasn't run, ring then keep it off. Whatever case applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over from there on 0333 366 0103, throughout Devon and in Cruwys Morchard — after you pull over, switch off then ring, if it's run.