Knotty Corner: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Pause here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car sits in Knotty Corner, is usually all it needs when found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Knotty Corner and Woodtown carry, with diesel for your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Knotty Corner: how it occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Abbotsham Cross before work, or in the car park outside Thatched Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's the second thing: a strange vehicle.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Ford or the middle of Knotty Corner: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Knotty Corner or a drive out in Yeo Vale. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally are not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many motors show what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Barnstaple, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Clovelly Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — once you've located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Knotty Corner: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Asda or the BP, ask the attendants to help roll your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Knotty Corner, leave the vehicle where it is.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M5 — under 50 miles out of Knotty Corner — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Knotty Corner.
Knotty Corner: what takes place when we turn up
The van reaches your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Abbotsham Village Hall, or outside St Helen's Church of England School. Our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since the answers decide this work and our price. You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is flushed or changed as needed. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once we get there, as long as your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Knotty Corner and where it is
Knotty Corner is a small locality in Devon, situated near the coast and approximately 101 metres above sea level. Knotty Corner lies within a short distance of several nearby places, including Ford, Abbotsham, and Fairy Cross. Knotty Corner is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its relatively rural setting. Knotty Corner is located around 37 miles from Exeter, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains in Knotty Corner and across Devon
As a coastal area, Knotty Corner has the same vans as surrounding areas — Abbotsham, Fairy Cross — all the way across EX postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Quickest of all: give a EX39 5 postcode for the van.
No need to move your car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Abbotsham Baptist Church, a lay-by on the way to Town Park Plantation, a driveway. Awkward to explain, like the back of St Helen's Church? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
The short version for Knotty Corner people
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, across Devon.