AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Northam: How It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop reading a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Northam, catching it before the engine turns normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. Here before the event? In that case the rest explains why it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Northam and Westward Ho! carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars have a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, again and again. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Northam
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off North Street, or heading home in the car park outside Kingsley Inn.
Unfamiliar motors come next, as well. Rentals, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's seconds, whether in Diddywell or bang in the heart of Northam.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Northam forecourt or a drive over in Buckleigh, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Barnstaple, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across Devon, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Tower Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Northam?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the Texaco, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump. Your own driveway in Northam is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Come off the M5 — under 50 miles out of Northam — at the next junction. A short hop across Northam is a smaller job than a run towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Northam, and what happens next
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside St Margaret's Church of England Junior School, beside St Margaret's Church or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. No one sets off until you've had the price over the phone.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. 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 doesn't wash out on its own. Testing comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Northam, briefly
Northam is a coastal town in Devon, situated near the estuary of the River Torridge, with a population of around 7594 people. Northam has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are the most common, and it is located about 36.9 miles from Exeter. Northam sits at an elevation of 46 metres, looking out over the coastline of North Devon. Northam is close to nearby places such as Diddywell, Silford, and Raleigh Estate.
Northam and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Silford and Raleigh Estate are among the towns around Northam, a coastal town, that the same teams cover, throughout EX postcodes. Give a postcode that starts EX39 1, and our van arrives quickest.
No need to move the car. Anywhere it stands — near Northam Methodist Church, on a lay-by heading to Bone Hill, on a drive — that's where it gets drained. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Northam motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere in Devon.