Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pencoys: Why It Happens
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Around Pencoys, finding it before the motor turns normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of modern diesels in Bolenowe, like those in Pencoys, carry on two liquids; the engine takes just your diesel. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
Pencoys: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Loscombe Lane, or heading home in the car park at Sportsman's Arms.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after begun, carries on. Four Lanes or the heart of Pencoys: it takes the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Pencoys forecourt or a drive out in Carn Arthen, spend a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel inlet? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual says where.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Redruth? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever across Cornwall, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Filtrick Lane, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five is off limits.
Pencoys: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Morrisons, Texaco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Pencoys.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Leave the M5 — over 50 miles out of Pencoys — at the next exit. A short hop across Pencoys is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Pencoys: what happens when our engineers get there
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Pencoys Primary School, near Pencoys Hall or on your own drive. Those replies determine the work and the price, so our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. Nobody heads out until you have had our quote by phone.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. The engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If the motor has not 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. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Pencoys itself
Pencoys is a small locality in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 207 metres, approximately 9.6 miles from Truro. Pencoys is characterized by its terraced housing and is located near other local places such as Four Lanes, Grillis, and Treskillard. Pencoys has a population of around 1042 residents and is a relatively small community within the Cornish countryside.
AdBlue drains round Pencoys, and Cornwall beyond
Over TR postcodes, our vans covering Pencoys — a small village — work the surrounding locations too, Treskillard and Grillis among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TR16 6.
Moving the vehicle is not needed. Wherever it sits — beside Saint Andrew, in a lay-by en route to Wheal Basset Mine, at home — that's where it gets emptied. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Four Lanes & Pencows Institute.
For Pencoys motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the car off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Cornwall.