Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Torpoint: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page aside a moment, keep the ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Torpoint, catching it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the engine — but plenty of modern diesels driven around Torpoint and Maryfield hold a second fluid too. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
Torpoint: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off North Road before work, or in the car park at The Standard on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the tip begins, no part stops it. Whether it takes place in Morice Town or the middle of Torpoint, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A couple of seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Mount Wise or a forecourt in Torpoint.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Dockyard, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
The day the light goes on, anywhere across Cornwall, follow this routine.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and never in a rush by Antony Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the lid on your diesel side is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it's 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 AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Do not go on to stage five.
Torpoint: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Keep the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts your pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Gulf or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car clear if asked. On your own drive in Torpoint? So the vehicle stays put.
Already started? Pull over when it is safe, then turn off. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the M5, under 50 miles from Torpoint. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Torpoint is less work than a run of under 3 miles to Plymouth, and so tell us.
What happens when our engineers get there around Torpoint
The van comes to your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Cornerstone Church, or outside Torpoint Nursery and Infant School. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our technicians ask. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it clears away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Once the fuel filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. Before we leave, our technicians start it and confirm that it's running correctly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Torpoint, briefly
Torpoint is a coastal town in Cornwall, situated on the Rame Peninsula, with a population of around 9683 people. Torpoint has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Torpoint is located near several other communities, including Morice Town, Devonport, and Wilcove, and is just 2.5 miles from Plymouth. Torpoint sits at a relatively low elevation of 16 metres above sea level, overlooking the sea.
AdBlue drains around Torpoint and across Cornwall
Devonport and Wilcove are among the places around Torpoint, a coastal town, that the same vans cover, throughout PL postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts PL11 2, and the van gets there fastest.
The car remains where it is. Wherever it stands — beside St James, on a lay-by en route to Rendel Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Torpoint Library, close to a border, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Torpoint motorists
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.