Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Treneague: Why It Occurs
Keep the motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your car sits around Treneague, is usually all it takes when caught before your motor runs. Nothing happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's what many newer diesels near Treneague and St Stephen carry, with diesel feeding your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Diesel gets filled on every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
Treneague: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Lower Meadows, or at Queens Head on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a new car.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Trethosa or the middle of Treneague, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Carloggas or a forecourt around Treneague, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Check as you pick up a hire car or company car — at St Columb Road's car park, perhaps — not once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cornwall that is.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Creakavose Park.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Treneague: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the Shell or somewhere else. Your own drive around Treneague is where it should stay.
When your motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and turn it off. The next junction is where to leave if you're on the M5, over 50 miles from Treneague. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Treneague is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Truro, so say.
Our arrival around Treneague, and what happens next
Our engineers come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside St Stephen Churchtown Academy, close to St Stephen Community Centre & Social Club or on your own drive. We ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the answers settle the work and the price. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system cleaned 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 the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. Before we leave, our engineers start it and confirm that it's running properly.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a live forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Treneague, briefly
Treneague is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Cornwall, with Treneague being one of the many rural settlements in the area. Treneague sits at an elevation of around 85 metres, close to the nearby places of Trethosa, Terras, and Stepaside. Treneague is located near the city of Truro, which is approximately 9 miles away, and Treneague is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock.
Treneague and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
As a rural hamlet, Treneague has the same vans as surrounding places — Terras, Stepaside — right through PL postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a PL26 7 postcode for the van.
No need to move the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near St Stephen in Brannel Church, in a lay-by en route to St. Stephen-in-Brannel Recreation Ground, at home — that's where it gets emptied. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Resugga Castle, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Treneague drivers: the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, wherever across Cornwall: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.