How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stoke Gabriel
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stoke Gabriel. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the engine — but many newer diesels seen about Stoke Gabriel and Yalberton carry another fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have both together under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. The mistake lives in that gap.
Stoke Gabriel: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Paignton Road, or at The Church House Inn on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it out in Port Bridge or right in the heart of Stoke Gabriel.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Higher Yalberton or a forecourt in Stoke Gabriel, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- On many cars, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Paignton, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Devon that is.
- Switch off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside Church Walk on the verge.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read it.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Stoke Gabriel: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the Sainsbury's or the Morrisons, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Stoke Gabriel.
Already started? Pull over when it's sensible, then turn off. Come off the M5 — under 25 miles out of Stoke Gabriel — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Stoke Gabriel is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles towards Exeter, and so tell us.
When our technicians arrive in Stoke Gabriel, what occurs?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Stoke Gabriel Primary School, close to The Church of Saint Mary and Saint Gabriel or on your own drive. Those answers determine this work and our price, and so we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. During the call itself, you are told our price — ahead of dispatch.
Then your tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. After the filter has been cleaned — or replaced, if needed — clean diesel is added, and then your car is tested. Next we fire it up and check it runs properly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Stoke Gabriel
Stoke Gabriel is a village in Devon, situated inland near the River Dart and close to the nearby settlements of Port Bridge, Aish, and East Cornworthy. Stoke Gabriel has a population of around 933 residents and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Stoke Gabriel sits at an elevation of 16 metres, approximately 22 miles from Exeter and 170 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Stoke Gabriel, and Devon beyond
As a rural village, Stoke Gabriel shares its vans nearby areas — Aish, East Cornworthy — all the way across TQ postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TQ9 6.
The vehicle stays where it is. Wherever it sits — beside Stoke Gabriel Village Hall, in a lay-by heading to South Downs Wood, at home — that's where it is cleared. Guessing won't help at the back of Sharpham Vineyard & Cheesemakers., on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Stoke Gabriel drivers
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere in Devon, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.