AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hulham: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Hulham. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads round Hulham and Littleham carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel gets filled on each filling station visit, week in, week out. Much less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — normally from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hulham: how it takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Shackleton Close, perhaps outside The Farmhouse on the way home after work.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Hulham or out in Brixington.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Hulham or a drive out in Lympstone. Seconds, no more.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask 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 at Exmouth.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
On the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Devon — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Hulham Vale.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both share a flap, make sure it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Hulham: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Tesco, Esso or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Hulham.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. The next exit means where to leave if you're on the M5, under 5 miles from Hulham. About how far did it go? Hopping across Hulham is smaller a job than a run of under 10 miles to Exeter, so say.
Hulham: what occurs when we arrive
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Brixington Primary Academy, near Scott Drive Church or on your own drive. Those replies settle this work and the quote, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided the motor has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Hulham, for a moment
Hulham is a suburban area in Devon, situated near the coast and approximately 8 miles from Exeter. Hulham sits at an elevation of 52 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Hulham is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, with nearby places including Brixington and Withycombe Raleigh.
AdBlue drains round Hulham, and Devon beyond
Hulham is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Withycombe Raleigh and Exmouth among them, across the EX postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a EX8 4 postcode to the van.
The vehicle does not need to shift. Anywhere it sits — near Point in View Chapel, in a lay-by heading to Brixington Park, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain, like the back of A la Ronde? By a border? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
In short, for Hulham people
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Devon, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.