Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stowford: Why It Happens
Stop here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, carried out right where your vehicle stands in Stowford, is usually what it takes if found before the motor runs. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Stowford and Bulverton carry, with diesel for the motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is filled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Stowford?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Greenway Lane, or heading home in the car park at Bowd Inn.
Unfamiliar vehicles come next, too. Hire cars, new motors and company motors place their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. It takes seconds, be it in Higher Woolbrook or bang in the heart of Stowford.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Lower Woolbrook or a forecourt around Stowford, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- Can't see it beside the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Feniton? Check with the person who drove it last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever around Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Stowbrook.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stowford?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Esso, ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Stowford is where it stays.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Stowford lies under 10 miles from the M5; on it, take the next exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Stowford makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Exeter — so say roughly how far it went.
Stowford: what happens when our engineers turn up
By Sidmouth Church of England (VA) Primary School, close to St Francis of Assisi or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since those replies settle this work and the quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that clears away unaided, however long it is left. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Stowford itself
Stowford is a small coastal hamlet in Devon, situated near the cities of Exeter and the surrounding villages of Higher Woolbrook, Bowd, and Middle Woolbrook. Stowford sits at an elevation of 65 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Stowford is located approximately 12 miles from Exeter and 147 miles from London, making it a rural community with some distance from major urban centres.
AdBlue drains around Stowford, and Devon beyond
Over EX postcodes, our vans covering Stowford — a rural hamlet — work the surrounding places too, Middle Woolbrook and Bowd among them. A postcode starting EX10 0 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Sidmouth Amateur Dramatic Society, a lay-by on the way to Wheat Hill, a driveway. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Seven Stones, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Stowford drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Devon.