Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mile End: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the motor hasn't run, it is emptied and fully purged where your car is around Mile End. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many current diesels on the roads about Mile End and Teigngrace carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
Mile End: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness rarely explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a drive off Mile End Road before work, or in the car park outside Highweek Village Inn heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, keeps on. Highweek or the heart of Mile End: it takes the same few seconds either way.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Newton Abbot or a forecourt around Mile End.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which belongs in which inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Newton Abbot? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Devon that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Beacon Drive, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That's where you stop. Step five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Mile End already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Heltor,Highweek Garage, the another forecourt nearby or anywhere else. Your own drive in Mile End is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M5, under 15 miles from Mile End, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Mile End.
What occurs when our engineers arrive in Mile End
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Bradley Barton Primary School and Nursery Unit, near Community Centre or on your own drive. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because those answers set both work and quote. No one sets off until you've had the quote over the phone.
After that: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. Before we leave, our technicians start it and make sure that it is running correctly.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Mile End, for a moment
Mile End is a suburban area in Devon, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 57 metres, with a mix of housing types but predominantly detached homes. Mile End lies near the city of Exeter, approximately 13.6 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Highweek and Broadlands. Mile End is part of the wider South West region, with its residents being around 166.5 miles from London. Mile End has a population of around 3743 people.
AdBlue drains in Mile End and across Devon
Mile End is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Broadlands and Abbotsbury among them, across the TQ postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TQ12 1.
The car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Segar's Plantation, a side street near All Saints: our technicians drain the car where it stands. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Berry's Wood Hillfort? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
The short version for Mile End drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever around Devon: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.