Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leigham: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car stands around Leigham, is usually all it needs when caught before your motor runs. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Estover, like those in Leigham, carry on two liquids; the engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together under one flap. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Leigham: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Sheepstor Road before work, or in the car park outside Windmill Inn on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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 once it has started. Whether it takes place in Longbridge or the middle of Leigham, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Marsh Mills or a forecourt around Leigham, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Plymouth.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Devon that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Grimspound Close, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Stop when the tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip slowly through the own spout.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
Leigham: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Esso, the Asda or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Leigham.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Leigham, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Leigham is less a job than a trip of under 5 miles to Plymouth, and so tell us.
Our arrival around Leigham, and what takes place next
Outside Leigham Primary School, close to Leigham Community Hall or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it's run, since those replies decide the work and our quote. Nobody heads out before you've had the price over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. After the filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car is tested. Next our engineers start the car and confirm it runs correctly before we leave.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Leigham, for a moment
Leigham is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Plymouth in Devon, sitting at an elevation of 63 metres above sea level. Leigham is situated near the coast, with nearby places including Longbridge, Eggbuckland, and Mainstone. Leigham has a population of approximately 3349 residents, with a predominance of terraced housing. Leigham is close to the city of Plymouth, being only 3.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Leigham included
Leigham is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Eggbuckland and Mainstone among them, across the PL postcode area. A postcode starting PL6 8 gets our van to you fastest.
The car stays put. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Elm Community Hall, or a layby towards Leigham Wood. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Christ Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Leigham people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, across Devon.