Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in South Pill
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around South Pill, catching it before the engine runs usually means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Burraton Coombe, like those in South Pill, run on two fluids; your motor takes just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around South Pill
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Bishops Close, or heading home in the car park outside The New Rodney.
Unfamiliar cars are next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit reaches 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, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of South Pill or out in Saltash.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a South Pill forecourt or a driveway over in Latchbrook, spend a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at Saltash's car park, say — rather than when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Cornwall, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Adit Lane.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Leave out step five entirely.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around South Pill?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — and so keep it off. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Shell, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. On your own drive in South Pill? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Where your engine has run already, stop somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. Leave the M5 — under 50 miles out of South Pill — at the first junction. Distance counts — a quick hop across South Pill makes a smaller job than heading under 5 miles to Plymouth — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival in South Pill, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Brunel Primary & Nursery Academy, close to Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church or on your own driveway. The replies decide the work and the quote, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. No one heads out before you have had our quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, 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 that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, if required — fresh diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. 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 part of many insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About South Pill, briefly
South Pill is a suburban area located on the coast of Cornwall, situated near the city of Plymouth and close to the nearby towns of Saltash and St Stephens. South Pill has a population of around 5631 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. South Pill sits at an elevation of 38 metres, overlooking the surrounding coastal landscape. South Pill is also within commuting distance of major cities, with London approximately 193 miles away.
South Pill and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
South Pill is a residential suburb, and the vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Wearde and St Stephens among them, across the PL postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning PL12 6, and our van gets there quickest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Saltash Library, a lay-by on the way to Longstone Park, a drive. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Saltash Bowls Club, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for South Pill drivers
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Cornwall.