AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mawnan Smith: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when your motor has not run, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your vehicle is around Mawnan Smith. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads round Mawnan Smith and Maenporth carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Different tanks, different fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, again and again. Rarely filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what cap it needs. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Mawnan Smith: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Grove Hill before work, or in the car park outside The Red Lion heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new vehicles and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Mawnan Smith or out in Meudon.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Trerose or a forecourt around Mawnan Smith, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Penmere, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Cornwall the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Carwinion Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Mawnan Smith already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone starts your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or the Esso, ask the staff to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway around Mawnan Smith is the place it should stay.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M5 — over 50 miles out of Mawnan Smith — at the first junction. Mileage counts — a short hop across Mawnan Smith makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Truro — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians get there in Mawnan Smith
Our van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside Old Smithy, or by Mawnan CofE VA Primary School. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the answers settle the work and the price. On the phone call itself, you are told the price — ahead of dispatch.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is cleared. 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 the flush matters more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers go.
If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Mawnan Smith and where it is
Mawnan Smith is a village in Cornwall, situated near the coast and approximately 55 metres above sea level. Mawnan Smith lies within a short distance of several nearby places, including Meudon, Carlidnack, and Bareppa. Mawnan Smith is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its status as a residential community. Mawnan Smith is located about 10 miles from Truro, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains in Mawnan Smith and across Cornwall
Mawnan Smith is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Carlidnack and Bareppa among them, across the TR postcode area. A postcode starting TR11 5 gets our van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a road near Mawnan Methodist Church, or a lay-by towards Carwinion Garden. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Michael? By a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
The short version for Mawnan Smith people
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Cornwall.