AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Teignmouth: How It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Teignmouth, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels in Ash Hill, like those in Teignmouth, run on two fluids; the engine gets only the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank has a filler of its own. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. Diesel goes in on every forecourt visit, again and again. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Teignmouth: how it takes place
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a driveway off Den Road before work, or in the car park outside Molloys on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: a strange vehicle.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It takes seconds, be it out in Shaldon or right in the centre of Teignmouth.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Teignmouth forecourt or a driveway out in Bishopsteignton, take a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Check for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a rental or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, say — rather than once the light appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Devon that is.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside George Street at the roadside.
- 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 stays on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never carry on to stage five.
Teignmouth: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help push your car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Tesco, the Morrisons or somewhere else. Your own drive in Teignmouth is the place it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the M5, under 10 miles from Teignmouth, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Teignmouth makes a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Exeter — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Teignmouth, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Shaldon Primary School, close to Pavilions Teignmouth or on your own drive. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, because the answers settle this work and our price. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your car. Then our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour after our engineers arrive, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Teignmouth itself
Teignmouth is a coastal town in Devon, situated on the north bank of the River Teign estuary, with a population of around 12980 people. Teignmouth has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and the town is close to nearby places like Shaldon and Holcombe. Teignmouth sits at a low elevation of around 5 metres above sea level, looking out over the English Channel. Teignmouth is located near the city of Exeter, which is about 12 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Teignmouth and across Devon
As a coastal town, Teignmouth has the same vans as surrounding areas — Ringmore, Holcombe — all the way across TQ postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TQ14 8.
Shifting the car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Den, a side street close to Pellew Arcade Mosaics: our technicians drain it where it stands. Assuming won't help at the back of Teign Heritage Centre, on a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
The short version for Teignmouth drivers
Read the cap before you tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere around Devon.