Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shaldon: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Shaldon. Here in advance? Then the rest covers how it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of modern diesels seen round Shaldon and Stokeinteignhead carry another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Shaldon: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
On a driveway off Torquay Road before work, or in the car park at Clifford Arms on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part halts the tip after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Ringmore or the middle of Shaldon, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Bishopsteignton or a forecourt around Shaldon.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Teignmouth.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light comes on, anywhere around Devon, follow this routine.
- Stop on level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Fore Street.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Shaldon already?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Tesco or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive in Shaldon? Then the vehicle stays where it is.
Where your engine has run already, pull over somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. Come off the M5 — under 10 miles out of Shaldon — at the first junction. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Shaldon makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Exeter — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when we get there in Shaldon
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Shaldon Primary School, near St Peter's Church or on your own driveway. The replies settle the work and our quote, and so we ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run. That price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. 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 the fuel filter is cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the car is tested. After that our engineers start the engine and check it runs properly before leaving.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once we arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Shaldon itself
Shaldon is a small coastal village in Devon, situated near the mouth of the Teign Estuary and close to the towns of Teignmouth and Ringmore. Shaldon has a population of around 971 people and is characterized by its terraced housing. Shaldon sits at a low elevation of approximately 8 metres above sea level, with Ash Hill nearby. Shaldon is located about 12.7 miles from Exeter and 161.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Shaldon and across Devon
Shaldon is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Teignmouth and Ash Hill among them, across the TQ postcode area. Fastest of all: give a TQ14 0 postcode to the van.
No need to move the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Martin Gallery, a lay-by on the way to Homeyards Botanical Garden, a driveway. Assuming won't help at the back of St Nicholas, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Shaldon people
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Devon.