--- title: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank St James? Read This canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/st-james-devon/ location: St James county: Devon latitude: 50.732300 longitude: -3.517960 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-21 --- # AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St James: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It Keep the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out right where the car stands in St James, is usually what it needs if found before the engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time. ## AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers Many modern diesels on the roads round St James and Stoke Hill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank. Every tank comes with a 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 the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at each filling station visit, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The error lives in that gap. ## St James: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up. The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Prospect Park before work, or in the car park outside The Bowling Green on the way home. Unfamiliar cars come next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one. A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, keeps on. Polsloe Priory or the heart of St James: it takes the same few seconds either way. ## Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler Check these first, on a forecourt in St James or a drive over in Newtown. Seconds, that's all. - Where it sits can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not. - Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one. - A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it. - In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which. - The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at St James' Park, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on. ## Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Devon that is. - Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Old Tiverton Road. - Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've found your filler and read the cap. - Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle. - Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty. - Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle. Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop right there. Don't go on to step five. ## AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around St James? Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is taken from. If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Morrisons or the Esso, ask the attendants to help push the car clear of the petrol pump. At home around St James? So the vehicle remains put. Already run? Stop once it is sensible, then turn off. Leave the M5 — under 3 miles out of St James — at the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across St James makes a smaller job than driving under a mile towards Exeter — so tell us about how far it went. ## When we turn up in St James, what takes place? Wherever the car came to rest, be it by Stoke Hill Infant and Nursery School, near Pure Land Buddhist Centre or on your own drive, our van travels to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers decide the work and our quote. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off. After that: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, certain metals corrode, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of the car. We don't leave until it has been fired up and is running correctly. With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine has not run take roughly half an hour after we are there. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours. ## About St James and where it is St James is a suburban area located near the city of Exeter in Devon, sitting at an elevation of around 55 metres above sea level. St James is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and is situated close to nearby places such as Polsloe Priory and Pennsylvania. St James is a relatively densely populated area with a population of approximately 13904 residents. St James is also close to the suburb of Polsloe, with which it shares some local amenities. ## AdBlue drains across Devon, St James included Polsloe and Pennsylvania are among the places near St James, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over EX postcodes. A postcode starting EX4 6 gets the van to you fastest. The vehicle remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to a street just off the centre, a lay-by on the way to St James' Church Gardens, a driveway. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of St James' Park. ## For St James motorists, the short version First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the car switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Devon.