Insworke: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Insworke. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads around Insworke and St John carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both together behind one flap. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Insworke
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off St John's Road before work, or in the car park outside The Devon and Cornwall on the way home.
Unfamiliar cars come second, too. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it takes place in Millbrook or the middle of Insworke, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Cawsand or a forecourt around Insworke.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Devonport, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever across Cornwall, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Kiln Close.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Insworke?
Do not start the engine: that's where the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Gulf or another — the staff will usually help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Your own drive around Insworke is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M5 — under 50 miles out of Insworke — at the next junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across Insworke is a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Plymouth — so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers get there around Insworke, what occurs?
By Millbrook CofE Primary School, close to All Saints or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Which liquid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide both work and price. No one heads out before you've had our quote by phone.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Insworke and where it is
Insworke is a coastal locality in south-east Cornwall, situated near the mouth of the Tamar Estuary and close to the Devon border. Insworke lies at a low elevation of around 8 metres, with nearby settlements including Millbrook, Tregonhawke, and Kingsand. Insworke is characterized by its terraced housing and proximity to the city of Plymouth, which is approximately 3.5 miles away.
Insworke and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
As a coastal area, Insworke has the same vans as surrounding areas — Tregonhawke, Kingsand — all the way through PL postcodes and the wider area around them. Give a postcode beginning PL10 1, and our van gets there fastest.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Millbrook Village Hall, a lay-by on the way to The Tanyard, a driveway. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Methodist Church? Close to a border? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
For Insworke drivers, the short version
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across Cornwall.