Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wonford: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Wonford. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels around Wonford and Newtown run, with diesel feeding the engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler to use. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Wonford
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off Draycott Close, or at Royal Oak on the way home that evening.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. St Loyes or the heart of Wonford: it is the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Polsloe or a forecourt around Wonford.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles mark what goes in each inlet just there.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Polsloe Bridge, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is in Devon — a simple routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of South Wonford Terrace, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using the own spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Wonford?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels it alone starts your pump. Don't top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car away when you ask. At home around Wonford? Then your car stays put.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. On the M5, under 3 miles from Wonford, that means the next junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Wonford.
Wonford: what occurs when our technicians turn up
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Wynstream Primary School Academy, close to South West Baptist Association or on your own drive. We ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers settle this work and our price. The price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before we go, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running correctly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Wonford, briefly
Wonford is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Exeter in Devon, sitting near the River Exe at an elevation of around 21 metres. Wonford is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as St Loyes, Heavitree, and St Leonards. Wonford has a population of approximately 6572 residents and is within walking distance of Exeter city centre.
AdBlue drains round Wonford, and Devon beyond
Throughout EX postcodes, the teams covering Wonford — a residential suburb — work the surrounding locations too, St Leonards and Heavitree included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EX2 5.
The vehicle remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Heavitree Pleasure Ground, a side street near Wonford Sports Centre: our engineers drain the car where it stands. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Wonford Community & Learning Centre? By a county line? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
The short version for Wonford drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Devon: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.