Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mill Knowe
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. In Mill Knowe, catching it before your engine turns normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. Reading before the event? Then what follows explains how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of modern diesels around Kilkerran, as well as Mill Knowe, run on two fluids; the engine gets just your diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. Much less frequently, the AdBlue side gets topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Mill Knowe: how it happens
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
On a drive off Roading before work, or in the car park at The Commercial Inn on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and once the tip starts, no part stops it. It's seconds, be it in Dalintober or bang in the heart of Mill Knowe.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Askomill or a forecourt around Mill Knowe, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — at the nearest station's car park, say — rather than once the warning appears.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Argyll and Bute, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Glengyle Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — making sure the diesel cap remained closed throughout. Only then, start your car.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Mill Knowe?
Do not start the engine: that is how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as the ignition goes on — so keep it off. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at County Garage Filling Station, D. McNair & Son (Yard) or another forecourt will usually help pushing the car clear when asked. Your own drive in Mill Knowe is the place it stays.
Already run? Pull over when it is sensible, then turn off. The next junction is the place to come off when you are on the M77, under 50 miles from Mill Knowe. A short hop across Mill Knowe is a smaller job than a run towards Belfast, over 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Mill Knowe, and what happens next
The van comes to your car anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, near Springbank Evangelical Church, or by the local primary school. The replies determine this work and our price, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run. Nobody sets off until you've heard our quote by phone.
Then that tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of that clears out on its own, however long it sits. Filter flushed or, if needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of your car. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Mill Knowe itself
Mill Knowe is a coastal suburban area in Argyll and Bute, situated near the towns of Dalintober and Calton, and close to the larger town of Campbeltown. Mill Knowe has a relatively low elevation of around 5 metres, indicating its proximity to the sea. Mill Knowe is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is common in many Scottish coastal towns. Mill Knowe is located some distance from major cities, with London being approximately 352 miles away and Belfast around 59 miles across the water.
Mill Knowe and Argyll and Bute: AdBlue drains across the area
Over PA postcodes, the teams that cover Mill Knowe — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Campbeltown and Calton among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting PA28 6.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it sits — beside Springbank Distillery, in a lay-by heading to Kinloch Public Park, on a drive — that's where it gets cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Aqualibrum.
For Mill Knowe people, the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Argyll and Bute, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.