AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Otterton: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine hasn't turned, it's emptied and fully cleaned where your car is around Otterton. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many current diesels driven around Otterton and Kersbrook hold another fluid too. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt visit, again and again. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Otterton?
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Lea Road before work, or in the car park at The Kings Arms on the way home.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Otterton or out in North Star.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Otterton or a driveway out in Yettington. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Exmouth, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Wherever in Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush by Fore Street on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the 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.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Otterton already?
Do not start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the East Budleigh Garage or the Pace, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own driveway around Otterton, leave the car where it sits.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M5, under 10 miles from Otterton, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Otterton is less a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Exeter, and so say.
What occurs when our technicians get there in Otterton
Outside Otterton Church of England Primary School, near Otterton Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. The answers decide the work and the price, so our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run. The price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that we start the engine and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Unrun vehicles mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Otterton and where it is
Otterton is a small coastal village in Devon, situated near the mouth of the Otter estuary and close to the nearby settlements of North Star, East Budleigh, and Colaton Raleigh. Otterton sits at a low elevation of around 15 metres, looking out over the coastal landscape. Otterton has a population of approximately 673 residents, living in predominantly detached housing. Otterton is located near the city of Exeter, which is about 11 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Otterton, and Devon beyond
Otterton is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, East Budleigh and Colaton Raleigh among them, across the EX postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning EX9 7, and our van arrives fastest.
No need to move your car. The drain happens on the spot, whether a driveway, a street near Otterton Village Sign, or a layby on the way to Otterton Sports Ground. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Michael's? Close to a border? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Otterton people: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Devon.