Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East-the-Water: Why It Happens
Keep the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Usually, if the engine hasn't turned, it's drained and fully rinsed where the car sits in East-the-Water. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels around Pillmouth, like those in East-the-Water, run on two fluids; the motor gets just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each filling station call-out, again and again. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around East-the-Water?
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Torrington Lane, perhaps outside Black Smith Arms on the way home after work.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it occurs in Bideford or the middle of East-the-Water, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Raleigh Estate or a forecourt around East-the-Water, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Barnstaple.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Devon that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Sentry Corner.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
East-the-Water: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short order, then. Top of that: your motor stays off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car clear, when you ask. At home in East-the-Water? So the car stays put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M5 — under 50 miles out of East-the-Water — at the first junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across East-the-Water makes a smaller job than heading under 50 miles towards Exeter — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians turn up in East-the-Water
The van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Chudleigh Fort, or by East-the-Water Community Primary School. Our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the answers decide the work and the quote. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears out on its own, however long it sits. Once your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Then our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs correctly before leaving.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take roughly half an hour once we arrive. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About East-the-Water, for a moment
East-the-Water is a suburban area in Devon, situated near the town of Bideford and approximately 35 miles from Exeter. East-the-Water lies inland, with an elevation of around 51 metres, and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. East-the-Water is part of a larger residential area that includes nearby neighbourhoods such as Orchard Hill and Southcott. East-the-Water has a population of around 5398 people, making it a modestly sized community in the region.
AdBlue drains across Devon, East-the-Water included
East-the-Water is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Orchard Hill and Southcott among them, across the EX postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning EX39 4, and our van arrives fastest.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Bethel Free Church, a lay-by on the way to Pollyfield, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Tarka the Otter? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
The short version for East-the-Water drivers
Tip no AdBlue until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever across Devon: keep it off then call 0333 366 0103.