Devoran: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor hasn't run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where your vehicle is around Devoran. Here in advance? Then what follows explains why it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Devoran and Chycoose carry, with diesel feeding your engine. 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. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Devoran?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Edwards Road before work, or in the car park outside The Old Quay Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you motors come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the tip 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 occurs in Perranwell Station or the middle of Devoran, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Devoran or a driveway out in Church Town. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show which goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows which it lives when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the 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 Perranwell.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever around Cornwall, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Carnon Terrace.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Devoran?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor remains off. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Texaco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if asked. Your own drive around Devoran is the place it should stay.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. Devoran sits over 50 miles from the M5; there, take the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Devoran is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Truro — so say roughly how far it went.
What takes place when we get there around Devoran
The van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, near St John & St Petroc, or by Devoran School. The answers decide the work and our price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run. That price comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Then that tank is cleared and the system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers leave.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. No money upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — so use the wait to look at yours.
About Devoran, for a moment
Devoran is a small coastal village in Cornwall, situated near the city of Truro and overlooking the Fal Estuary. Devoran has a population of around 641 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Devoran sits at a low elevation of 22 metres above sea level, close to nearby places such as Perranwell Station and Carnon Downs.
Devoran and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a coastal village, Devoran has the same vans as surrounding places — Carclew, Carnon Downs — all the way through TR postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TR3 6.
There's no need to shift your car. Draining happens right there, be it a drive, a road near Devoran Village Hall, or a layby on the way to Jubilee Wood. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Devoran Methodist Church, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Devoran people: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever around Cornwall: keep it off and ring 0333 366 0103.