How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sticklepath
Pause here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Sticklepath. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels around Pottington, as well as Sticklepath, carry on two liquids; your engine gets just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
Sticklepath: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Sticklepath Hill, or outside The Water Gate on the way home after work.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car 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 bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and after the pour starts, nothing stops it. Barnstaple or the heart of Sticklepath: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Newport or a forecourt around Sticklepath, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many vehicles show what belongs in each filler right there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a rental or fleet car — at Barnstaple's car park, say — rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere around Devon, follow this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Old Sticklepath Hill.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel filler stayed closed the whole time. After that, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never carry on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Sticklepath?
The short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Asda, Tesco or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Sticklepath, leave the car where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction means the place to come off when you're on the M5, under 50 miles from Sticklepath. A short hop across Sticklepath is a smaller job than a run towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Sticklepath, and what takes place next
Wherever the car came to rest, be it outside Ashleigh CofE Primary School, beside St Paul's Church or at home, the van comes to it. What fluid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the answers decide the work and quote. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire 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 here than with petrol. Testing comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
With pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Sticklepath itself
Sticklepath is a suburban area in Devon, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 16 metres, and is located near the city of Exeter. Sticklepath has a population of approximately 1392 residents and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Sticklepath is close to nearby places such as Barnstaple, Lake, and Pilton, and is about 172.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Sticklepath, and Devon beyond
Sticklepath is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Lake and Pilton among them, across the EX postcode area. Quote a postcode beginning EX31 2, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street near North Devon Leisure Centre, or a lay-by on the way to Rock Park. Guessing won't help at the back of Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
The short version for Sticklepath drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Devon.