AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penryn: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine has not turned, it's drained and fully purged where your vehicle sits in Penryn. The rest of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels in Mongleath, like those in Penryn, carry on two fluids; the engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for each tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on each forecourt visit, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Penryn?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Lower Market Street before work, or in the car park outside Kings Arms on the way home.
Then, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
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 pour once it has started. St Gluvias or the heart of Penryn: it takes the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Penryn forecourt or a drive over in Tregew, spend a few seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- Plenty of cars give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, anywhere around Cornwall, use this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Higher Market Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read the cap.
- The two under one flap? So make sure the lid on your diesel filler is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Penryn?
Short list, then. Top of that: the motor remains unstarted. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Texaco, Asda or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle clear if asked. At home around Penryn? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M5 — over 50 miles out of Penryn — at the first junction. A short hop across Penryn is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Penryn: what occurs when our technicians get there
By Penryn Primary Academy, close to Penryn Town Hall or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. The answers determine this work and the price, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. 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 fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running properly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Penryn and where it is
Penryn is a coastal town in Cornwall, situated near the confluence of the Penryn River and the Carrick Roads, at an elevation of around 24 metres. Penryn lies approximately 7 miles south of Truro and is surrounded by nearby places such as St Gluvias, Bissom, and Lower Treluswell. Penryn has a population of around 10,554 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Penryn is located about 235.9 miles west of London, in the South West region of England.
AdBlue drains around Penryn and across Cornwall
Being a coastal town, Penryn shares its vans nearby places — Bissom, Lower Treluswell — all the way through TR postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting TR10 8 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to shift the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Penryn Museum, a lay-by on the way to Trelawney Park, a driveway. Tricky to explain, like the back of Temperance Hall? By a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
For Penryn motorists, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.