Sandy Bottom: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Stop here a minute when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Sandy Bottom. 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.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads around Sandy Bottom and Mount Charles carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. 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, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Seldom filled, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sandy Bottom: how it takes place
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Menear Road, or on the way home in the car park outside The Carlyon Arms.
Unfamiliar motors come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
No part halts the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Boscoppa or the middle of Sandy Bottom, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Be it a Sandy Bottom forecourt or a driveway over in Carclaze, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside St Austell.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Wherever around Cornwall the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Bethel Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Skip step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sandy Bottom?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Asda or any other — the staff will normally help roll the vehicle away, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Sandy Bottom.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M5 — over 50 miles out of Sandy Bottom — at the next exit. A short hop across Sandy Bottom is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 15 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Sandy Bottom, and what takes place next
Outside Sandy Hill Academy, near Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints St Austell Chapel or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide the work and price. On the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Then your tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Once your filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally your vehicle is tested. Then our engineers start it and check it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour after we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Sandy Bottom, for a moment
Sandy Bottom is a suburban area in Cornwall, situated on the coast with an elevation of 58 metres. Sandy Bottom lies near several neighbouring communities, including Boscoppa, Holmbush, and Bethel, and is approximately 13.6 miles from the city of Truro. Sandy Bottom has a population of around 6133 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Sandy Bottom is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 217.5 miles.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Sandy Bottom included
As a residential suburb, Sandy Bottom has the same vans as surrounding places — Holmbush, Bethel — right across PL postcodes and the wider area around them. Quickest of all: quote a PL25 3 postcode for the van.
No need to move the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Sandy Hill Park, a side street near Bethel Methodist Church: we drain the vehicle where it stands. Assuming doesn't help behind Seventh Day Adventist Church, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Sandy Bottom drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Cornwall.