Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knockinlaw: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Knockinlaw, catching it before your engine turns usually means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the engine — yet plenty of newer diesels driven about Knockinlaw and Onthank hold another liquid as well. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, different fillers. Many of cars have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Knockinlaw
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Innellan Drive before work, or in the car park outside Black's Bar heading home: that's where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in.
New-to-you vehicles come second, as well. Rentals, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and the hand goes for the cap it 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, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. Whether it takes place in Altonhill or the middle of Knockinlaw, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Knockinlaw or a driveway over in Beansburn. Seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Kilmarnock.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are across East Ayrshire — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Hillhead Square.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went into the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Knockinlaw?
Short order, then. Top of it: the motor stays unstarted. Leave the ignition off as well, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs the pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the Morrisons or the BP, ask the staff to help push the car clear of the pump. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive around Knockinlaw.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then switch off. The next junction is the place to come off when you're on the M77, under 3 miles from Knockinlaw. Distance matters — a quick hop across Knockinlaw is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles towards Glasgow — so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there around Knockinlaw, what occurs?
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, near The Synergy Arena, or by the local primary school. Both the work and our price rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. During the call itself, you are told the quote — before anything else.
Next: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. Testing is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. Next we start it and check it runs smoothly before we leave.
If your motor has not 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. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Knockinlaw, briefly
Knockinlaw is a suburban area situated on the riverside in East Ayrshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Knockinlaw sits at an elevation of around 60 metres, near the communities of Altonhill, Longpark, and Hillhead. Knockinlaw is located approximately 19 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter base for the city. Knockinlaw has a population of around 6403 people, living in a range of housing types, predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains round Knockinlaw, and East Ayrshire beyond
Knockinlaw is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Longpark and Hillhead among them, across the KA postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting KA3 1.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. Draining takes place right there, whether a driveway, a street near Townholm Bowling Club, or a lay-by towards Hollybrae Plantation. Guessing won't help behind Trades Union Council Memorial Tree, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Knockinlaw drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it stands, wherever around East Ayrshire: switch it off then ring 0333 366 0103.