Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hartland: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Hartland, catching it before your engine turns normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it takes place and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Staddon, like those in Hartland, carry on two liquids; the engine takes only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two together under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Hartland
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Fore Street before work, or in the car park at Anchor Inn on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new vehicle.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It takes a few seconds, whether out in Pattard Water or bang in the heart of Hartland.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Natcott or a forecourt in Hartland, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many vehicles show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook says where it is when the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning comes on — wherever it is in Devon — a simple routine to use.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by School Lane on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Hartland: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that is where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump. Your own driveway around Hartland is the place it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Hartland, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Hartland is smaller work than a run of under 50 miles to Exeter, and so tell us.
Hartland: what happens when our engineers turn up
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Hartland Methodist Chapel, or outside Hartland Primary School. The answers settle the work and our price, so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
Then your tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears away unaided. Hence it matters more. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle gets tested. After that we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Hartland, briefly
Hartland is a coastal village in Devon, situated on the north-west coast of the county, with Pattard Water and Cheristow nearby. Hartland sits at an elevation of around 110 metres, overlooking the sea and surrounded by rural landscapes. Hartland has a population of approximately 951 residents, living in predominantly detached housing, and is located near Rosedown. Hartland is about 45 miles from Exeter and 191 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Hartland included
Cheristow and Rosedown are among the towns near Hartland, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout EX postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EX39 6.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near Hartland Parish Hall, on a layby en route to Pattard Wood, at home — that is where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Church Rooms.
In short, for Hartland people
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Devon, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.