AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Penwithick: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Penwithick. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Penwithick and Penhale carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Penwithick: how it occurs
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Penhale Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Innis Inn.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
No part stops the pour once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Resugga Green or the middle of Penwithick, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Penwithick or a drive over in Knightor. A few seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a hire car or fleet car — from Luxulyan's car park, say — rather than when the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cornwall that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Hallaze Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never came off.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Leave out stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Penwithick already?
Don't start your motor: that's how the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Tesco or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. At home in Penwithick? Then your car stays where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is where to come off if you are on the M5, over 50 miles from Penwithick. Distance counts — a quick hop across Penwithick is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Truro — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Penwithick: what happens when our technicians get there
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Sky Primary and Eden Project Nursery, near Treverbyn Community Hall or on your own drive. Which fluid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since the answers decide the work and price. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. After the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Penwithick and where it is
Penwithick is a small village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 198 metres, approximately 14 miles from Truro. Penwithick has a population of around 1253 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Penwithick is close to nearby places such as Resugga Green, Carluddon, and Treverbyn, and is about 217 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Penwithick included
Penwithick is a rural village, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Carluddon and Treverbyn among them, across the PL postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning PL26 8, and the van arrives quickest.
Moving the car is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Penwithick Green, a side street close to St. Peter the Apostle: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Stenalees Methodist Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Penwithick drivers: the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, wherever across Cornwall: switch the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.