How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ardrishaig
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before your motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Ardrishaig. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads about Ardrishaig and Cairnbaan carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to fresh it, from its own tank.
There's a filler on every tank. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Ardrishaig
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off C43 East Bank Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode kicks in.
Unfamiliar cars are second, too. Hire cars, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ardrishaig or out in Lochgilphead.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Ardrishaig or a drive over in Port Ann. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you pick up a rental or company car — at the nearest station's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Argyll and Bute the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by East Bank Road at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel side stays closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Find during the second or third step that the bottle went into the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Ardrishaig: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. First: your motor remains off. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs the pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at Esso, Highland or any forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if asked. If you are on your own drive around Ardrishaig, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. On the M8, under 50 miles from Ardrishaig, that means the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ardrishaig.
When our engineers turn up around Ardrishaig, what occurs?
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Ardrishaig Community Halls or on your own drive. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, since the replies settle the work and our price. Nobody heads out until you have had the price over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes out unaided, however long it sits. Once the filter has been flushed — or replaced, where required — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour after we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ardrishaig, for a moment
Ardrishaig is a small coastal village in Argyll and Bute, situated near the head of the Loch Fyne at an elevation of around 9 metres. Ardrishaig lies within a short distance of Lochgilphead and other nearby settlements such as Blarbuie and Inverneill. Ardrishaig has a population of approximately 598 people and predominantly features flat-type housing. Ardrishaig is located some 48 miles from Glasgow and 379 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Ardrishaig and across Argyll and Bute
Blarbuie and Inverneill are among the places around Ardrishaig, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout PA postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts PA30 8, and the van arrives quickest.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Wherever it sits — beside Memorial to Rev James Chalmers, on a layby heading to Robber's Den, on a drive — that is where it gets emptied. Assuming won't help behind John Smith Memorial, on a border, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For Ardrishaig motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it is, wherever around Argyll and Bute: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.