AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penhale: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Penhale, finding it before your motor turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many current diesels seen round Penhale and St Enoder carry a second liquid as well. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray treats the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Penhale
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a driveway off Kingsley Court before work, or in the car park at Penhale Round Cookhouse & Pub on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, be it out in Fraddon or right in the centre of Penhale.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Toldish or a forecourt in Penhale, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you pick up a rental or fleet car — from St Columb Road's car park, say — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Cornwall that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of New Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It works.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the cap on your diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Penhale?
Do not start the motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of blending — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Shell, Esso or any other — the staff will usually help push the car away, when you ask. Your own driveway around Penhale is where it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Penhale sits over 50 miles from the M5; there, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Penhale is less a job than a trip of under 10 miles to Truro, and so tell us.
When our engineers get there in Penhale, what takes place?
By Indian Queens Primary School, close to Fraddon Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. What liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set the work and quote. On the call itself, you hear our price — ahead of anything else.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the whole system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. After that our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Penhale itself
Penhale is a small village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 117 metres, approximately 9 miles from the city of Truro. Penhale lies near the villages of Fraddon, Troan, and St Columb Road, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Penhale remains a quiet residential community, with a population of around 961 people, and is located about 223 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains around Penhale and across Cornwall
As a rural village, Penhale shares its vans surrounding places — Troan, St Columb Road — all the way through TR postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TR9 6.
The car does not need to shift. Anywhere it stands — beside TK Maxx, on a lay-by en route to Fraddon Millennium Green, at home — that's where it gets drained. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Marks & Spencer? By a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
In short, for Penhale people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.