--- title: Explained: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Starcross canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/starcross-devon/ location: Starcross county: Devon latitude: 50.626710 longitude: -3.447400 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-10 --- # Starcross: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It? Keep your engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Starcross, catching it before your motor runs normally means a drain and a full flush on the spot. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all. ## Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler? Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Starcross and The Point carry, with diesel feeding the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it. Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens constantly. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. The mistake grows in the gap between the two. ## AdBlue in the diesel tank in Starcross: how it occurs Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide. The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off New Road before work, or in the car park at Galleon Inn on the way home. The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a strange car. A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, keeps on. Whether it occurs in Cockwood or the middle of Starcross, it's the same few seconds. ## Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Eastdon or a forecourt around Starcross. - The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position. - On many vehicles, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck. - Open the flap and check for a label — plenty of cars mark what goes in which inlet right there. - The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which. - Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside the nearest station? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on. ## Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank Anywhere across Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day. - Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine off, and never rushed by Courtenay Terrace on the verge. - Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works. - The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before the bottle comes up. - Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty. - Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle. Find during the second or third step that the bottle went in the wrong tank? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether. ## Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Starcross already? Brief list, then. Top of that: the motor stays unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it. The staff at Shell, Esso or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Starcross, leave the vehicle where it stands. Already run? Pull over once it's sensible, then switch off. Starcross sits under 5 miles from the M5; on it, use the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Starcross is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Exeter — so say roughly how far it went. ## When our engineers arrive in Starcross, what occurs? Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Starcross Primary School, near St. Pauls or on your own drive. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since those answers determine the work and our price. Nobody heads out before you've had the quote over the phone. Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more here than with petrol. After your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your car gets tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly. If the engine has not run, most 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. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling. ## About Starcross Starcross is a coastal village in Devon, situated on the western side of the Exe Estuary, with Cockwood and Middlewood nearby. Starcross has a low elevation of around 3 metres, reflecting its location on the estuary's edge. Starcross is characterized by its terraced housing and remains a small, residential community within commuting distance of Exeter. Starcross is also close to other nearby places such as Cofton, and is about 156 miles from London. ## Starcross and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area Starcross is a coastal village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Middlewood and Cofton among them, across the EX postcode area. Quickest of all: give a EX6 8 postcode to the van. The car remains where it is. The drain takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street by Cofton Parish Hall, or a lay-by towards Oak Meadow Golf Club. Assuming doesn't help at the back of St Mary's Cofton, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and ask. ## In short, for Starcross motorists First, the cap; after that, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Devon.