How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Helston
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Helston, catching it before your engine runs usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels around Helston and Goonhusband run, with diesel for the motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Helston?
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Church Street before work, or in the car park outside The Beehive on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second thing: an unfamiliar vehicle.
No part stops the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Sithney Common or the middle of Helston: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt around Helston or a drive out in Gwavas. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many motors mark what belongs in which filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Camborne's car park, say — not once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever in Cornwall, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Wendron Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; before that, tip gently using the built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Helston?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Pace, Tesco or any forecourt will normally help to push the car away when you ask. At home in Helston? Then the car stays put.
When your engine has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch it off. The next junction is where to come off when you're on the M5, over 50 miles from Helston. A short hop across Helston is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Helston: what occurs when our engineers arrive
By Parc Eglos School, near Guildhall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what liquid, which quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once that tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals build up, some metals corrode, and none of it washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. After that we start it and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Helston, for a moment
Helston is a coastal town located in Cornwall, England, positioned at the northern tip of the Lizard Peninsula. It is nestled near the southernmost point of Great Britain, with nearby towns including Penzance and Falmouth. The town is known for its unique setting, surrounded by the peninsula's landscape. Helston is a notable settlement in the region, boasting a distinct character.
Helston and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
As a coastal town, Helston has the same vans as nearby areas — Lowertown, Degibna — all the way across TR postcodes and the wider area beyond. Give a postcode beginning TR13 8, and the van arrives fastest.
There's no need to move your car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Helston Museum, or a layby on the way to The Sunken Gardens. Guessing doesn't help behind The Furry Youth Cafe, close to a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
The short version for Helston motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Cornwall.