Yelland: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. Around Yelland, catching it before the engine runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Yelland and Fremington carry, with diesel for your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place the two side by side behind one flap. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Yelland
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Pottery Lane before work, or in the car park outside the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Lower Yelland or the middle of Yelland, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Whether a Yelland forecourt or a drive over in Instow, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Cannot find it beside your diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- 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 outside Barnstaple.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever in Devon the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine off, and not rushed beside West Yelland at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Yelland?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the car on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Murco, Esso or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, if you ask. Your own drive around Yelland is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M5 — under 50 miles out of Yelland — at the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Yelland.
When our technicians get there in Yelland, what takes place?
By Instow Community Primary and Pre-School, close to St John The Baptist or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. The replies determine the work and our price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes away unaided, however long it is left. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, replaced; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Before we go, our engineers start the engine and make sure that it's running properly.
With pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Yelland, briefly
Yelland is a small coastal village in Devon, situated near the estuary of the River Taw, with Lower Yelland and Instow Town nearby. Yelland has a population of around 1032 residents and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. Yelland sits at a low elevation of 18 metres above sea level, close to the South West coast of England. Yelland is located approximately 36 miles from Exeter and 176 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Yelland and across Devon
As a coastal village, Yelland has the same vans as surrounding places — Bickleton, Instow Town — all the way through EX postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting EX31 3 gets our van to you fastest.
Moving your car is not needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Allenstyle Wood, a side street near St. Peter: our technicians drain it where it sits. Guessing doesn't help behind All Saints' Chapel, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
For Yelland people, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, anywhere around Devon: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.