AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Trewennack: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep the engine and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Trewennack. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many modern diesels driven round Trewennack and Treloquithack carry a second fluid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Trewennack
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Parc Bowen before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in as readily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. It's seconds, be it out in Trevenen or right in the centre of Trewennack.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Trewennack forecourt or a driveway over in Coverack Bridges, take a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Camborne? Check with the person who drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across Cornwall the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of A394.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never came off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Trewennack?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting the motor. Keep the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The staff at Texaco, Tesco or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if you ask. If you are on your own drive around Trewennack, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Trewennack lies over 50 miles from the M5; on it, take the next exit. A short hop across Trewennack is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Trewennack: what takes place when we arrive
Outside Boskenwyn Community Primary School, near Trewennack Methodist Church or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers set both work and quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts 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. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we get there, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Trewennack itself
Trewennack is a small village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of around 80 metres, and is located approximately 13.6 miles from the city of Truro. Trewennack has a population of around 511 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Trewennack is surrounded by other small settlements, including Trevenen, Trevenen Bal, and Trussall, in the Cornish countryside.
AdBlue drains about Trewennack, and Cornwall beyond
As a rural village, Trewennack has the same vans as surrounding places — Trevenen Bal, Trussall — right through TR postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting TR13 0.
Your car does not need to move. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a street near Helston Sports Centre, or a lay-by on the way to "The Three Rocks". Guessing won't help at the back of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Trewennack motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Cornwall, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103.