AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newtown: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Newtown. Here before the event? Then what follows covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your motor — but many current diesels driven round Newtown and Exeter carry another liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
There is a filler for every tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
Newtown: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Clifton Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Clifton Inn.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a strange motor.
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. It's seconds, be it out in Barnfield or right in the centre of Newtown.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Newtown forecourt or a driveway out in Polsloe, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which goes in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside St James' Park? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere in Devon the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Lower Summerlands.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Newtown?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off too, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you're at a forecourt — the Esso, the Morrisons or somewhere else. If you're on your own driveway in Newtown, leave it where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M5, under 3 miles from Newtown, that means the next exit. A short hop across Newtown is a smaller job than a run towards Exeter, under a mile away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Newtown, what happens?
The van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Christadelphian Hall, or by Newtown Primary School. The answers settle the work and our price, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run. That quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then that tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. Once the filter is flushed — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle gets tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine 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. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Newtown and where it is
Newtown is a suburban area located near the city of Exeter in Devon, sitting at an elevation of 42 metres above sea level. Newtown is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, with many residents living in apartments. Newtown is situated close to other nearby places such as Barnfield, St Leonards, and St James, and is home to a population of approximately 11311 people. Newtown is also relatively close to the regional hub, with Exeter city centre just 0.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Newtown and across Devon
As a new town, Newtown shares its vans surrounding places — St Leonards, St James — all the way through EX postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. A postcode starting EX1 2 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to move. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Belmont Park, a side street close to St Matthew's Church Hall: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. Tricky to explain, like the back of St Matthew's Church? By a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
For Newtown motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Devon.