AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Farleigh Meadows: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands around Farleigh Meadows, is normally what it takes if caught before the motor runs. Reading before the event? In that case what follows covers how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels around Farleigh Meadows and Washfield run, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have the two side by side behind one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Farleigh Meadows?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Chinon Place, or heading home in the car park outside The Racehorse.
Unfamiliar vehicles come second, 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.
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 tip once it has started. Cotteylands or the heart of Farleigh Meadows: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these first, at a forecourt around Farleigh Meadows or a driveway over in Moorhayes Park. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Tiverton Parkway's car park, say — not when the light appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Devon that is.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Lace Crescent.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — confirm your diesel cap remained closed throughout. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Farleigh Meadows already?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Shell or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. On your own drive in Farleigh Meadows? So the vehicle remains put.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M5, under 10 miles from Farleigh Meadows, that means the next junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Farleigh Meadows makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles to Exeter — so say about how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Farleigh Meadows, what occurs?
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside St John's Catholic Primary School, near Coronation Field or on your own driveway. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those replies determine this work and the price. No one sets off before you have heard our quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced as needed. We don't go until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Farleigh Meadows itself
Farleigh Meadows is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Devon, with a relatively low elevation of 76 metres. Farleigh Meadows lies near the city of Exeter, approximately 13 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Cotteylands and Bolham. Farleigh Meadows has a population of around 1058 people and predominantly features detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Farleigh Meadows and across Devon
Over EX postcodes, our vans covering Farleigh Meadows — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Tiverton and Bolham among them. Give a postcode beginning EX16 5, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it stands — near Ian Moorcroft Stadium, on a layby en route to Peoples Park, at home — that's where it gets cleared. Assuming won't help behind Exe Valley Leisure Centre, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
In short, for Farleigh Meadows motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Devon.