How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Columb Road
Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain and a full flush, done just where your vehicle sits around St Columb Road, is normally what it needs if caught before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around St Columb Road and Black Cross carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. 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 fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around St Columb Road?
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Parka Road before work, or in the car park at Blue Anchor Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is new. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip begins, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Trevarren or the middle of St Columb Road, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Indian Queens or a forecourt around St Columb Road.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cornwall that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Newquay Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then look once more — confirm the diesel filler remained shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Never go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in St Columb Road?
Brief list, then. First: the motor stays unstarted. Do not switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it is the Esso or the Shell, ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Your own drive in St Columb Road is where it should stay.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. St Columb Road lies over 50 miles from the M5; on it, use the first junction. Mileage matters — a short hop across St Columb Road makes a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Truro — so say roughly how far it went.
What occurs when we arrive in St Columb Road
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Indian Queens Primary School, near Victory Hall or on your own driveway. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those answers set the work and price. That quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the whole system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, however long it is left. Testing is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We don't leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. 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 insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About St Columb Road, for a moment
St Columb Road is a village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 121 metres, approximately 10 miles from the city of Truro. St Columb Road is surrounded by nearby places such as Trevarren, Fraddon, and Killaworgey, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing. St Columb Road has a population of around 1135 residents, and is located about 223 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, St Columb Road included
As a rural village, St Columb Road has the same vans as nearby areas — Fraddon, Killaworgey — all the way through TR postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TR9 6.
No need to move the car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street near The Mission Church of St. Francis, or a lay-by on the way to Indian Queens Recreation Ground ('The Rec'). Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Working Men's Club.
St Columb Road motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere in Cornwall: keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.