Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Georges Well: Why It Occurs
Stop here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In St Georges Well, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel feeds your motor — yet plenty of current diesels seen round St Georges Well and Brithem Bottom hold another fluid too. AdBlue goes to the 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. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in St Georges Well?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Norman Drive before work, or in the car park at The Weary Traveller on the way home.
Then your car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Stoneyford or the middle of St Georges Well: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt in St Georges Well or a drive over in Knowle. A few seconds, that's all.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel inlet? Then look beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- 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 at Tiverton Parkway.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, wherever in Devon, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Stuart Crescent, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off first.
- 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 the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Finish once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently using its own spout.
- Shut the cap, then check again — confirm the diesel cap remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in St Georges Well?
Short list, then. First: the motor stays off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Shell, Tesco or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in St Georges Well.
Already run? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. Leave the M5 — under a mile out of St Georges Well — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across St Georges Well.
When we turn up around St Georges Well, what happens?
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Andrew's Primary School, close to Diggerland or on your own drive. Which fluid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because those replies set both work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears out unaided, however long it is left. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and check that it's running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as your motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About St Georges Well
St Georges Well is a locality situated on the riverside in Devon, with a relatively low elevation of 54 metres. St Georges Well lies near the cities of Exeter and the towns of Cullompton and Willand, and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. St Georges Well is home to a population of around 1306 residents, and is located approximately 11.9 miles from Exeter. St Georges Well is also close to the village of Stoneyford and the town of Willand.
AdBlue drains across Devon, St Georges Well included
Being a small village, St Georges Well shares its vans nearby places — Cullompton, Willand — all the way through EX postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting EX15 1 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car stays put. Wherever it stands — beside War memorial, on a layby heading to Head Wier Road Play Area, at home — that's where it gets drained. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Cullompton Town Hall, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for St Georges Well people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around Devon.