Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woolwell: Why It Happens
Pause reading a minute when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Woolwell. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the page explains the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many modern diesels in Glenholt, as well as Woolwell, run on two liquids; the motor gets just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler for each tank. Other vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens around Woolwell
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
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 driveway off Woolwell Road before work, or in the car park outside Lopes Arms on the way home.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Woolwell or out in Widewell.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Roborough or a forecourt in Woolwell.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- On many motors, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Bere Ferrers, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
On the day the warning appears — wherever you are across Devon — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Hazelwood Drive, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When both share a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, pour gently using its own spout.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Woolwell?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Tesco, Asda or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive in Woolwell.
Where the motor has run already, pull over somewhere safe then turn the vehicle off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Woolwell, that means the next junction. A short hop across Woolwell is a smaller job than a run towards Plymouth, under 5 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When our engineers get there in Woolwell, what happens?
Our van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St Anne, or by Bickleigh Down Church of England Primary School. What liquid got in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask because the replies decide both work and quote. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
The fuel system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears away on its own, however long it sits. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of the car. Before leaving, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
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 at night. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Woolwell itself
Woolwell is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Plymouth in Devon, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Woolwell sits at an elevation of 159 metres, overlooking the surrounding coastal landscape. Woolwell is close to nearby places such as Widewell and Bickleigh Down, and is approximately 4.7 miles from Plymouth city centre. Woolwell has a population of around 4600 residents.
AdBlue drains around Woolwell and across Devon
Woolwell is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Bickleigh Down and Belliver among them, across the PL postcode area. Fastest of all: quote a PL6 7 postcode for our van.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Beverston Big Park (Millennium Green), a side street near Roborough Village Hall: our technicians drain the car where it is. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Church of the Holy Spirit, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Woolwell drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere across Devon.