Quintrell Downs: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Quintrell Downs. 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.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels on the roads round Quintrell Downs and St Columb Minor carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in the gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in Quintrell Downs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off East Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. It's seconds, whether out in Kestle Mill or right in the centre of Quintrell Downs.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Mountjoy or a forecourt in Quintrell Downs.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cornwall that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of A3058, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find during the second or third stage that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Stage five is out.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Quintrell Downs?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Shell, Morrisons or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when asked. If you're on your own drive around Quintrell Downs, leave it where it is.
Already run? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. On the M5, over 50 miles from Quintrell Downs, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Quintrell Downs is smaller work than a trip of under 10 miles to Truro, and so tell us.
When our engineers get there in Quintrell Downs, what takes place?
By Nansledan School, near Quintrell Downs Village Hall or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because those replies settle this work and our quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
After that: 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 does not wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running correctly.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. Nothing in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Quintrell Downs, briefly
Quintrell Downs is a village in Cornwall, situated near the north coast and approximately 9.7 miles from Truro. Quintrell Downs has a population of around 1358 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Quintrell Downs sits at an elevation of 61 metres, with nearby places including Kestle Mill, Lane, and Colan. Quintrell Downs is located in the South West region of England, about 226.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Quintrell Downs included
Quintrell Downs is a coastal village, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Lane and Colan among them, across the TR postcode area. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TR8 4.
No need to shift the car. Draining takes place right there, be it a drive, a road near Lane Theatre, or a layby on the way to Treloy Golf Club. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Trerice.
For Quintrell Downs motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Cornwall.