How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mullion
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Mullion, finding it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels on the roads around Mullion and Cury carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. 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. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Mullion
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Meaver Road before work, or in the car park outside Old Inn heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it out in Trewoon or bang in the heart of Mullion.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Cross Lanes or a forecourt in Mullion, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what belongs in which inlet right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Penmere? Ask the person who drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — anywhere it is across Cornwall — a simple routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lender Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check once more — making sure the diesel filler remained shut throughout. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Mullion already?
Brief list, then. First: the engine remains off. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
On a forecourt — Kynance Garage, Sainsbury's or any other — the staff will usually help push your car clear, if you ask. On your own drive around Mullion? So the car stays put.
When the motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and switch the vehicle off. Mullion lies over 50 miles from the M5; there, take the first exit. A short hop across Mullion is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Mullion: what happens when our technicians arrive
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Mullion Primary School, close to St Mellanus Church or on your own drive. Those replies decide the work and our price, and so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. Nobody sets off before you have had our price by phone.
The fuel system is then cleaned thoroughly, once your tank is drained. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
If your engine hasn't 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 at night. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Mullion and where it is
Mullion is a coastal village in Cornwall, situated on the Lizard Peninsula at an elevation of around 68 metres. Mullion sits near the popular Mullion Cove and is surrounded by other small settlements like Trewoon and Meaver. Mullion has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly common, and is located approximately 18 miles from the city of Truro. Mullion is a relatively small community, with a population of around 1177 people.
Mullion and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a coastal village, Mullion shares its vans surrounding areas — Meaver, Mullion Cove — right through TR postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: give a TR12 7 postcode to the van.
The vehicle does not need to move. Draining happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street near Mullion Village Hall, or a lay-by on the way to The Mullion Garden. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Marconi Centre.
In short, for Mullion drivers
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.