AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cumnock: How It Occurs and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. In Cumnock, catching it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Many newer diesels on the roads around Cumnock and Barshare carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the fumes.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on many vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less regularly. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place around Cumnock
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Tanyard, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles place their fillers in new places, and the hand goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Holmhead or the middle of Cumnock, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Cumnock or a driveway over in Netherthird. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Auchinleck.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere across East Ayrshire the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and not rushed by Barrhill Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cumnock already?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the car on. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you are at a forecourt — the the nearest petrol station, the JET or anywhere else. At home in Cumnock? Then the car remains where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. On the M77, under 25 miles from Cumnock, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Cumnock is smaller a job than a run of under 50 miles towards Glasgow, so say.
When our technicians turn up in Cumnock, what happens?
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether outside the local primary school, near Baird Institute or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Those answers determine this work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is drained and your system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. Once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we leave.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Cumnock, for a moment
Cumnock is a town situated on the River Lugar in East Ayrshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential types. Cumnock sits at an elevation of 114 metres, near the villages of Holmhead and Knockroon. Cumnock is located approximately 28 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter town for those working in the city. Cumnock has a population of around 7005 people, with the town being a significant settlement in the area.
AdBlue drains around Cumnock and across East Ayrshire
Throughout KA postcodes, our teams covering Cumnock — a riverside town — work the nearby locations too, The Rigg and Knockroon among them. Fastest of all: quote a KA18 1 postcode to our van.
Moving your car isn't necessary. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Mercat Cross, a lay-by on the way to Shankston Wood, a drive. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Peden Monument, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In short, for Cumnock drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in East Ayrshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103.