AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Duporth: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Pause reading a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Duporth, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it happens and what to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Higher Porthpean, as well as Duporth, carry on two fluids; your engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Duporth
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Duporth Road before work, or in the car park at The Rashleigh Arms on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Duporth or out in Charlestown.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Duporth forecourt or a driveway over in Holmbush, spend a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives if 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 pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside St Austell.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere across Cornwall, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Manor Farm Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Duporth already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Asda, Texaco or another forecourt will usually help to push the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own drive in Duporth, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. The next exit means the place to come off when you're on the M5, over 50 miles from Duporth. Distance counts — a quick hop across Duporth is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Truro — so say roughly how far it went.
When our technicians turn up around Duporth, what happens?
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Mount Charles School, near Duporth Beach or on your own driveway. Which fluid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the replies set both work and price. During the phone call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of dispatch.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel 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. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians leave.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Duporth and where it is
Duporth is a small coastal village in Cornwall, situated near the town of Charlestown and overlooking the sea. Duporth sits at an elevation of 51 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Duporth is located approximately 13 miles from Truro, the nearest city, and is part of the wider South West region of England.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Duporth included
Lower Porthpean and Mount Charles are among the towns near Duporth, a coastal village, that the same vans cover, throughout PL postcodes. Quickest of all: give a PL26 6 postcode for our van.
The vehicle stays where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Old Mine, a lay-by on the way to Porthpean Golf Club, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of Shipwreck Treasure Museum, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Duporth motorists: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere in Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.