Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Warbstow Cross
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Warbstow Cross. 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 motor, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that's what plenty of modern diesels near Warbstow Cross and Trelash run, with diesel for the motor. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
There is a filler for every tank. Plenty of motors share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Warbstow Cross?
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
On a driveway off Knapmedown before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village heading home: that is where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Warbstow or the middle of Warbstow Cross, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Whether a Warbstow Cross forecourt or a driveway out in Canworthy Water, spend a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it is if your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Cornwall, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Trelawney Close, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Warbstow Cross: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Do not start your motor: that's how the short order of things starts. Leave your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs the pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
On a forecourt — Essar, Gulf or another — the attendants will usually help roll your car away, if you ask. On your own drive in Warbstow Cross? Then the car stays put.
When your engine has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the vehicle off. The next junction is where to come off when you are on the M5, under 50 miles from Warbstow Cross. A short hop across Warbstow Cross is a smaller job than a run towards Plymouth, under 50 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Warbstow Cross
The van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside St Werburgh, Warbstow, or by Warbstow Primary Academy. We ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since the answers determine the work and the price. During the phone call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of it washes away unaided, no matter how long it is left. The filter flushed or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your vehicle. Then we fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
Unstarted vehicles usually need a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Warbstow Cross
Warbstow Cross is a small locality in inland Cornwall, situated near the villages of Warbstow and Downinney at an elevation of 197 metres. Warbstow Cross lies within a predominantly rural area, characterised by detached housing and a relatively small population of around 527 residents. Warbstow Cross is located near the Devon border, approximately 28 miles from Plymouth and 199 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Warbstow Cross, and Cornwall beyond
Downinney and Fonston are among the places around Warbstow Cross, a small village, that the same teams cover, throughout PL postcodes. Fastest of all: give a PL15 8 postcode to our van.
The vehicle remains put. We drain it where it is — a side street near Warbstow Community Centre, a lay-by on the way to Treglith Manor, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Warbstow Bury.
For Warbstow Cross motorists, the short version
Pour no AdBlue until you've read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave the vehicle switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Cornwall.