North Prospect: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in North Prospect. Reading in advance? In that case the rest covers how it happens and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
No single fluid but two: that is what many modern diesels around North Prospect and Camels Head carry, with diesel feeding the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars 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 happens constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the mistake lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around North Prospect: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
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 Austin Avenue before work, or in the car park at Beacon Park Social Club on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of North Prospect or out in Ford.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a North Prospect forecourt or a drive over in Keyham, take a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Keyham, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Halcyon Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at stage two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never carry on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in North Prospect already?
Brief order, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where the fuel is pulled from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Gulf, ask the attendants to help roll the car clear of the pump. If you're on your own driveway around North Prospect, leave the car where it stands.
Already started? Stop once it is safe, then turn off. The next exit is the place to come off when you are on the M5, under 50 miles from North Prospect. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Plymouth, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across North Prospect.
North Prospect: what happens when our technicians arrive
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Wolseley Road Gospel Hall, or outside Mayflower Academy. The replies decide the work and our price, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody heads out until you've heard our quote by phone.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and finally your car is tested. Next we fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About North Prospect itself
North Prospect is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Plymouth in Devon, sitting at an elevation of 48 metres above sea level. North Prospect is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated near other local areas such as Ford, Ham, and Milehouse. North Prospect is close to the coast and is approximately 1.8 miles from Plymouth city centre. North Prospect has a population of around 9296 residents.
AdBlue drains around North Prospect, and Devon beyond
Over PL postcodes, the teams covering North Prospect — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Milehouse and Ham among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting PL2 2.
No need to shift the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Blockhouse Park, a side street close to Morice Baptist Church: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St James the Less, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for North Prospect motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Devon, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103.