AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bellsbank: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Stop here for a moment when the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Bellsbank, catching it before your motor runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush where it stands. 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 vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Pennyvenie, like those in Bellsbank, run on two liquids; the engine takes just your diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Bellsbank: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Ness Glen Road before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and after the pour begins, nothing halts it. Dalmellington or the heart of Bellsbank: it is the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Waterside or a forecourt around Bellsbank.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook will say where.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or company car — at New Cumnock's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in East Ayrshire — a routine to follow.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Shalloch Place.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and check again that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Bellsbank?
Brief order, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. Leave the ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, just where fuel is taken from.
At a forecourt — JET, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Bellsbank is where it stays.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Bellsbank lies under 25 miles from the M77; on it, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Glasgow, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Bellsbank.
Our arrival in Bellsbank, and what happens next
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Dalmellington War Memorial or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote depend on three replies — what fluid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we start it and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Bellsbank
Bellsbank is a village situated on the banks of a river in East Ayrshire, with a mix of terraced housing and a relatively small population of around 1126 residents. Bellsbank sits at an elevation of 205 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby settlements like Dalmellington and Gillies Knowe. Bellsbank is located approximately 38 miles from Glasgow, making it a rural community with some access to urban amenities. Bellsbank remains a quiet riverside village with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across East Ayrshire, Bellsbank included
Bellsbank is a village, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Gillies Knowe and Burnton among them, across the KA postcode area. Give a postcode beginning KA6 7, and the van gets there fastest.
There's no need to move the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street near Mineworkers of the Doon Valley Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Bogton Plantation, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Dalmellington Motte? Close to a county line? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Bellsbank drivers: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle switched off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across East Ayrshire.