Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lane
Keep the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, when the engine has not run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the car sits in Lane. Reading before the event? In that case the rest covers why it happens and what to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Trevemper, like those in Lane, run on two fluids; the engine takes just your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray treats the gas.
There is a filler for every tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lane: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Gannel View Close, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have 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, and so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Trencreek or the middle of Lane: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Lane forecourt or a drive out in Trenance, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Quintrell Downs's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Cornwall — a simple routine to use.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not in a rush beside A392 on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel side is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lane already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Morrisons, Esso or any forecourt will normally help to push the car away if you ask. Your own drive around Lane is the place it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the M5 — over 50 miles out of Lane — at the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Lane is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Truro — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Lane: what occurs when we arrive
Outside The Bishops CofE Learning Academy, close to Lane Theatre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. We ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, because the replies determine the work and the quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed as needed. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take about half an hour once our engineers are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Lane
Lane is a small coastal village in Cornwall, situated near the towns of Trencreek and Truro. Lane sits at an elevation of 58 metres, with its terraced housing reflecting the local architectural style. Lane is part of a network of villages and hamlets, including Gwills and Treninnick, that make up the surrounding area.
AdBlue drains round Lane, and Cornwall beyond
Gwills and Treninnick are among the places near Lane, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout TR postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TR8 4.
Moving the car isn't needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Golden lion tamarin, a side street near Atlantic Centre: our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Waterworld.
The short version for Lane motorists
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere in Cornwall.