AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Wear: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out just where your vehicle stands in Lower Wear, is normally all it needs if caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — but many current diesels driven around Lower Wear and Clyst Heath carry another fluid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler on each tank. Many of cars share a single flap for both, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lower Wear: how it takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Lower Wear Road before work, or in the car park outside The Tally Ho on the way home.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Rentals, new motors and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the pour starts, no part halts it. It's seconds, be it out in Countess Wear or right in the heart of Lower Wear.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt in Lower Wear or a driveway over in Wonford. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it is if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Check as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Newcourt's car park, say — not when the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the warning comes on — wherever you are across Devon — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time in hand — not rushing on the side of Locksley Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Wear?
Brief order, then. Top of that: the engine stays off. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Shell, the Texaco or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Lower Wear.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Lower Wear lies under a mile from the M5; there, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Lower Wear is smaller a job than a trip of under 3 miles towards Exeter, and so tell us.
Lower Wear: what happens when we get there
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by Countess Wear Primary School, near St Luke or at home, the van travels to it. The answers settle the work and our quote, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you are told the quote — before dispatch.
Draining your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Next our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before we go.
Unrun vehicles usually need a half-hour job after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Lower Wear, for a moment
Lower Wear is a coastal locality in Devon, situated near the city of Exeter and close to the neighbouring areas of Countess Wear and Exminster. Lower Wear lies at a low elevation of around 7 metres, reflecting its proximity to the sea. Lower Wear has a population of approximately 1470 people, residing primarily in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Lower Wear included
Exminster and St Loyes are among the towns around Lower Wear, a coastal area, that the same vans cover, throughout EX postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting EX2 7.
The car stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to King George V Playing Fields, a side street close to Countess Wear Village Hall: our technicians drain it where it is. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Countess Wear Paper Mills.
The short version for Lower Wear drivers
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere around Devon: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.