Whipton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, leave the ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, carried out just where the car sits in Whipton, is normally what it takes when found before the engine runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel feeds the engine — but many current diesels driven about Whipton and Polsloe Priory hold a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. 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 on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. The slip lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen around Whipton?
Carelessness seldom causes it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Pinhoe Road before work, or in the car park at the Half Moon heading home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Then the car is unfamiliar. 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.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once begun, carries on. It takes seconds, be it out in Polsloe Bridge or right in the centre of Whipton.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Whipton forecourt or a driveway out in Polsloe, spend a few seconds on these before anything is poured in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark which belongs in each filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Polsloe Bridge.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — anywhere it is in Devon — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of The Mede, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- 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.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — confirm your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Whipton?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Sainsbury's, the Morrisons or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway around Whipton, leave the car where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Whipton sits under 3 miles from the M5; on it, use the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Whipton is less a job than a trip of under 3 miles to Exeter, and so say.
Our arrival around Whipton, and what happens next
By Whipton Barton Junior School, close to St Boniface Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers determine the work and the price. The price is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out unaided. Hence it matters more. Filter flushed or, if it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Whipton itself
Whipton is a suburban area located near Exeter in Devon, sitting at an elevation of 36 metres above sea level. Whipton is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Polsloe Bridge, Pinhoe, and Heavitree. Whipton is home to a population of approximately 6550 residents and is just 2 miles from the city of Exeter.
AdBlue drains round Whipton, and Devon beyond
Over EX postcodes, our teams that cover Whipton — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Heavitree and Pinhoe included. A postcode starting EX4 8 gets the van to you fastest.
No need to shift the car. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Summerway Park, a side street near Whipton Community Hall: we drain the vehicle where it sits. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of St Boniface Chapel, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Whipton motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever in Devon: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.