Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Plain-an-Gwarry
Leave the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the vehicle stands in Plain-an-Gwarry, is normally what it takes when caught before your engine runs. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the why it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads around Plain-an-Gwarry and Blowinghouse carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Plain-an-Gwarry?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and letting it run dry means limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Claremont Road, perhaps at Miners Arms on the way home that evening.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Plain-an-Gwarry or out in Redruth.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Plain-an-Gwarry forecourt or a drive out in Tolgus Mount, spend a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of motors mark which goes in each inlet just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Redruth, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cornwall that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Roaches Row.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using its own spout.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
Plain-an-Gwarry: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Opie Oils or any other — the attendants will usually help roll your car clear, when you ask. On your own drive around Plain-an-Gwarry? Then the car remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Plain-an-Gwarry lies over 50 miles from the M5; on it, use the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Truro, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Plain-an-Gwarry.
When we turn up around Plain-an-Gwarry, what occurs?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Pennoweth Primary School, near Redruth Community Centre or on your own drive. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those replies determine the work and the price. During the phone call itself, you hear our quote — before dispatch.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once we arrive, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Plain-an-Gwarry, briefly
Plain-an-Gwarry is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Cornwall, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Plain-an-Gwarry sits at an elevation of 97 metres, close to the city of Truro and near other local places such as Redruth and Church Town. Plain-an-Gwarry is located in the South West region of England, approximately 239 miles from London. Plain-an-Gwarry has a population of around 5810 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly terraced.
Plain-an-Gwarry and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Plain-an-Gwarry is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Church Town and Carn Brea Village among them, across the TR postcode area. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TR15 1.
The car remains where it is. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a road by Green Lane Chapel, or a lay-by on the way to Plain-an-Gwarry Park. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Regal Cinema, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Plain-an-Gwarry motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.