Vellanoweth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the engine and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Usually, when your motor has not run, it is drained and fully flushed where your vehicle sits around Vellanoweth. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your engine — but plenty of newer diesels seen round Vellanoweth and Varfell hold another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Vellanoweth: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Church Hill, perhaps outside The White Hart on the way home after work.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. Whether it occurs in Nanceddan or the middle of Vellanoweth, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Cockwells or a forecourt in Vellanoweth, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually are not.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at St Erth? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Cornwall the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Churchfield Close.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start your car, shut the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened 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 step five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Vellanoweth?
Short list, then. First: your engine remains off. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on alone starts the pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Morrisons, Sainsbury's or any forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the car away if you ask. At home around Vellanoweth? Then your car remains where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M5, over 50 miles from Vellanoweth, that means the next junction. A short hop across Vellanoweth is a smaller job than a run towards Truro, under 25 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Vellanoweth, and what takes place next
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Ludgvan Village Hall, or by Ludgvan School. Which liquid got in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask because the answers decide both work and price. On the phone call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. 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, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. The engine is started next and checked to be sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine hasn't run need about half an hour once our technicians are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Vellanoweth
Vellanoweth is a small coastal hamlet in Cornwall, situated near the villages of Nanceddan and Ludgvan. Vellanoweth lies at an elevation of 39 metres, close to the sea and within a short distance of Crowlas. Vellanoweth is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Vellanoweth is located approximately 21 miles from Truro, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains around Vellanoweth and across Cornwall
Ludgvan and Crowlas are among the places around Vellanoweth, a rural hamlet, that the same vans cover, over TR postcodes. Fastest of all: give a TR20 8 postcode to our van.
Your car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street by St Paul, or a layby on the way to Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Aqua Obscura, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Vellanoweth motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Cornwall.