Lochside: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Lochside. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Lochside and Summerville carry, with diesel for your engine. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, again and again. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally comes out of a bottle, tipped by someone who has to stop and think what filler to use. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Lochside?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Hardthorn Road, or at the pub in the village on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
Third, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as readily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. It's a few seconds, be it in Lochfield or bang in the centre of Lochside.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Lochside forecourt or a driveway out in Terregles, take a couple of seconds over these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark which goes in each filler just there.
- The handbook shows which it is when the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with 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 Dumfries.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Dumfries and Galloway that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Kindar Drive.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Don't go on to step five.
Lochside: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. Keep the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself starts the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, Tesco or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car away when you ask. If you're on your own drive in Lochside, leave it where it stands.
When your motor has run already, stop somewhere safe then turn the car off. The next exit means the place to leave when you are on the A74(M), under 15 miles from Lochside. A short hop across Lochside is a smaller job than a run towards Carlisle, under 50 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Lochside, and what takes place next
Anywhere the vehicle came to rest, whether outside the local primary school, beside Lochside Community Centre or at home, the van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and quote. The quote comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, however long it is left. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle gets tested. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Lochside itself
Lochside is a suburban area in Dumfries and Galloway, situated near the coast but inland at an elevation of 28 metres. Lochside lies close to several nearby communities, including Lochfield, Newbridge, and Lincluden, and is approximately 31 miles from Carlisle. Lochside has a population of around 2542 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Lochside is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 286 miles away.
Lochside and Dumfries and Galloway: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout DG postcodes, the vans covering Lochside — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Lincluden and Newbridge included. Quote a postcode that starts DG2 9, and our van arrives quickest.
Your car doesn't need to move. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Dumfries Northwest Parish Church, a lay-by on the way to Barnhill Wood, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of The Lincluden Rhino, close to a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Lochside people
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere around Dumfries and Galloway, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103.