Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Willingcott
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your motor hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly purged where the car is around Willingcott. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Dean, as well as Willingcott, carry on two liquids; the motor takes only your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Willingcott: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up at once.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Tarka Lane, or heading home in the car park outside The Old Mill.
The old car's filler is where your hand goes — yet a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's the second factor: a new motor.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Ossaborough or the middle of Willingcott, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Dean Cross or a forecourt in Willingcott, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark which belongs in each inlet just there.
- The handbook says where it lives if your filler is not next to the diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Ask 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 Barnstaple.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Devon, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Ossaborough Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Finish once the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; until then, tip gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap, and check once more — making sure your diesel cap remained closed the whole time. After that, start the car.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Willingcott?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that's where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Golden Coast Service Station, Murco or any other — the staff will usually help push the car away, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Willingcott.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. The next junction is the place to come off if you are on the M4, under 50 miles from Willingcott. A short hop across Willingcott is a smaller job than a run towards Swansea, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our engineers turn up around Willingcott, what occurs?
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Woolacombe School, near Segway Safari or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
The system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. 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. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Next our technicians fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly before leaving.
If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Wrong-fuel cover is part of many insurance policies — so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Willingcott and where it is
Willingcott is a small locality in Devon, situated on the coast in the South West region of England. Willingcott sits at an elevation of 186 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and coastline. Willingcott is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, with nearby places including Ossaborough, Trimstone, and Bradwell. Willingcott is located approximately 175.9 miles from London and 32.6 miles from the nearest city, Swansea.
AdBlue drains around Willingcott and across Devon
Being a coastal area, Willingcott has the same vans as surrounding places — Trimstone, Bradwell — right across EX postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Give a postcode beginning EX34 7, and the van arrives quickest.
The car remains put. Wherever it sits — near Woolacombe Village Hall, on a lay-by en route to Willingcott Valley Golf Course, at home — that's where it is emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Woolacombe Parish Church? Close to a county line? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Willingcott motorists: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Devon.