AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Town End: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Stop here for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Town End, catching it before the motor runs usually leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels around Clerkenwater, like those in Town End, carry on two liquids; the engine takes only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every filling station visit, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Town End: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off St Leonards, or outside The White Hart Inn on the way home after work.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a new car.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. Whether it occurs in Bodiniel or the middle of Town End, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Town End forecourt or a drive over in St Lawrence, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook will say where.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Bodmin Parkway.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, wherever around Cornwall, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Rosevallon Lane.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — once you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is 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 car.
Discover at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Leave out step five altogether.
Town End: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue settles to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Gulf, Texaco or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Town End.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Town End lies over 50 miles from the M5; there, take the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Town End is smaller a job than a run of under 25 miles to Truro, so say.
What occurs when we turn up around Town End
Wherever your car came to rest, whether outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Bodmin, beside St Lawrence's or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and our price rest on three replies — which fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and finally the car is tested. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Using pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run need about half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Town End and where it is
Town End is a locality situated inland in Cornwall, approximately 20 miles from the city of Truro. Town End sits at an elevation of around 114 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Bodiniel, Bodmin, and Dunmere. Town End is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing, which reflects the typical architectural style of the region. Town End is a relatively small community, with a population of around 3636 residents.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Town End included
Throughout PL postcodes, the vans covering Town End — a small village — work the surrounding locations too, Dunmere and Bodmin included. Quote a postcode that starts PL31 1, and the van gets there fastest.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. The drain takes place right there, be it a drive, a street near Bodmin Library and Information Service, or a layby towards Fair Park. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Bodmin Jail.
For Town End motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Cornwall.