Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Portscatho
Stop reading for a moment if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your car sits around Portscatho, is normally all it needs when caught before the engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds the engine — yet plenty of modern diesels driven about Portscatho and Trethewell carry another fluid as well. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
There is a filler on each tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Portscatho
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off The Square, or outside Plume of Feathers on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors are second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit 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, so nothing stops the pour after it has started. Gerrans or the heart of Portscatho: it is the same few seconds in both.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Portscatho or a driveway over in Percuil. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of motors show which belongs in each inlet just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Falmouth Docks? Ask the person who drove it last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Cornwall that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not rushed by River Street at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Portscatho: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the car on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from.
Ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the Esso, the another forecourt nearby or somewhere else. Your own driveway in Portscatho is where it should stay.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. The next junction is the place to leave when you're on the M5, over 50 miles from Portscatho. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Portscatho is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles towards Truro, and so say.
Our arrival in Portscatho, and what occurs next
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by Gerrans School, near Monument to General Slim or at home, the van comes to it. What liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers set both work and quote. During the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Then the tank is drained and your system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our technicians go.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Portscatho and where it is
Portscatho is a small coastal village in Cornwall, situated on the Roseland Peninsula near the villages of Gerrans and Trewithian. Portscatho sits at a low elevation of around 17 metres, with its detached houses and other buildings looking out over the sea. Portscatho is close to the city of Truro, which is about 6.7 miles away, and is a popular spot for those who enjoy the coastal scenery of the South West. Portscatho has a population of around 588 people, who live in the village's predominantly detached houses.
AdBlue drains about Portscatho, and Cornwall beyond
Throughout TR postcodes, our teams that cover Portscatho — a coastal village — work the nearby spots too, Trewithian and Rosevine among them. A postcode starting TR2 5 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by St Gerrans, or a layby on the way to Drawler Plantation. Guessing won't help behind Dingerein Castle, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
Portscatho motorists: the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere across Cornwall.