West Park: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in West Park. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single liquid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels around West Park and Ernesettle run, with diesel feeding your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Some motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place both side by side under one flap. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in West Park: how it happens
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Ringmore Way before work, or in the car park outside The Victory on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's the second thing: a new motor.
Nothing halts 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. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of West Park or out in Honicknowle.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt around West Park or a drive out in Weston Mill. A few seconds, no more.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps normally aren't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook says which it is if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at St Budeaux Victoria Road.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
Anywhere across Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Cheriton Close, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around West Park already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Texaco or another — the attendants will normally help push your car clear, if you ask. At home around West Park? Then your car remains put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The next exit is where to leave when you are on the M5, under 50 miles from West Park. A short hop across West Park is a smaller job than a run towards Plymouth, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around West Park, what takes place?
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, be it by Knowle Primary School, beside St Francis or at home, our van comes to it. Our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle the work and our quote. That price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system purged thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter flushed or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. The motor is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive, provided your engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About West Park
West Park is a suburban area in Devon, situated near the coast and approximately 3 miles from Plymouth city centre. West Park sits at an elevation of around 71 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. West Park is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the area's development as a residential suburb of Plymouth. West Park is close to other nearby suburbs, including Honicknowle, Whitleigh, and Kings Tamerton.
AdBlue drains about West Park, and Devon beyond
As a residential suburb, West Park has the same vans as nearby places — Whitleigh, Kings Tamerton — right across PL postcodes and the surrounding area around them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting PL5 3.
No need to move the car. The drain takes place right there, be it a driveway, a street near Honicknowle Youth and Community Centre, or a layby towards Woodland Wood. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Phoenix Centre.
In short, for West Park drivers
Always, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere in Devon.