AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Perranporth: How It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Perranporth. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Perranporth and Perrancoombe run, with diesel for your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Perranporth: how it takes place
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
On a drive off St Pirans Road before work, or in the car park outside The Deck heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it 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 tip once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Perranporth or out in Reen Manor.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Perranporth forecourt or a drive over in Penwartha Coombe, take a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Newquay.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
On the day the light appears — wherever you are across Cornwall — a simple routine to use.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Boscawen Road.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Perranporth: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Texaco or somewhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Perranporth.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M5 — over 50 miles out of Perranporth — at the first junction. A short hop across Perranporth is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Perranporth, and what occurs next
Anywhere your car came to rest, whether by Perranporth Community Primary School, beside Perranporth War Memorial Hall or at home, our van travels to it. What fluid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and price. The quote is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, once that tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter flushed or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your car. Before we leave, we fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Perranporth
Perranporth is a coastal village in Cornwall, situated on the north coast near the towns of Truro and Newquay. Perranporth has a population of around 2155 people and is characterised by detached housing. Perranporth sits at a low elevation of 7 metres above sea level, close to nearby places such as Reen Manor and Bolingey.
AdBlue drains round Perranporth, and Cornwall beyond
Being a coastal village, Perranporth shares its vans nearby places — Bolingey, Higher Reen — right through TR postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TR6 0.
Moving the vehicle isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to St Michael's Church Hall, a lay-by on the way to Perranporth Golf Club, a drive. Tricky to explain, like the back of Christ the King Catholic Church? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
Perranporth motorists: the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, wherever across Cornwall: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.