AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Campbeltown: How It Occurs and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Campbeltown. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that's how many modern diesels around Campbeltown and Calton carry, with diesel feeding your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen in Campbeltown?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Kirk Street before work, or in the car park at The Feathers Inn on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is strange. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to 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, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Mill Knowe or the heart of Campbeltown: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, at a forecourt in Campbeltown or a driveway out in Askomill. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside the fuel flap: many vehicles carry a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it next to your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Argyll and Bute that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Main Street, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Stage five is off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Campbeltown?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the D. McNair & Son (Yard) or the County Garage Filling Station, ask the attendants to help push the car away from the petrol pump. At home around Campbeltown? So the vehicle stays put.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Campbeltown lies under 50 miles from the M77; there, use the next exit. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Campbeltown makes a smaller job than driving over 50 miles to Belfast — so say roughly how far it went.
Our arrival in Campbeltown, and what takes place next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Campbeltown Town Hall or on your own drive. Those replies determine this work and the price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it has run. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after your tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it washes out unaided, however long it sits. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Campbeltown and where it is
Campbeltown is a coastal town in Argyll and Bute, situated on the Kintyre Peninsula, with a population of around 4427 people. Campbeltown sits at a low elevation of 9 metres, looking out across the sea to the north. Campbeltown is surrounded by nearby places such as Mill Knowe, Kilkerran, and Dalintober, and is located relatively close to the city of Belfast, which is 58.6 miles away. Campbeltown has a range of housing types, with flats being the predominant form of accommodation.
AdBlue drains about Campbeltown, and Argyll and Bute beyond
Throughout PA postcodes, our teams that cover Campbeltown — a coastal town — work the surrounding spots too, Dalintober and Kilkerran included. Fastest of all: give a PA28 6 postcode to our van.
There's no need to move the car. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a drive, a street near St. Kiaran’s Episcopal Church, or a layby on the way to Stewart Green. Guessing won't help at the back of The Salvation Army Hall, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
For Campbeltown drivers, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across Argyll and Bute.