AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stranraer Town: Why It Happens and How to Avoid It
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Stranraer Town. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Stranraer Town and West End carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, while some put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place around Stranraer Town?
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things coincide.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Agnew Crescent, perhaps outside Commercial Inn on the way home that evening.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. Whether it takes place in Stranraer or the middle of Stranraer Town, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt in Stranraer Town or a drive over in Ochtrelure. Seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Many vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Check as you collect a hire car or fleet car — at Stranraer's car park, say — rather than when the warning comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Dumfries and Galloway — a routine to use.
- Not in a rush on the side of Market Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Shut the cap, then look once more — confirm your diesel cap stayed closed the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Stranraer Town already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. The fuel pump runs on many diesels the moment the ignition goes on — so leave it off. Thinning it with extra diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Solo, Morrisons or any forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle away when you ask. Your own driveway around Stranraer Town is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Stranraer Town — at the first junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Stranraer Town is less work than a run of under 50 miles towards Belfast, and so tell us.
Stranraer Town: what takes place when we turn up
The van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near Blin' Johnny's Awa', or by the local primary school. We ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the replies determine this work and the price. No one heads out until you've had our price over the phone.
Then your tank is cleared and your system flushed thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is cleaned or changed if necessary. Then our engineers fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
If your engine has not run, the majority of 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 the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Stranraer Town and where it is
Stranraer Town is a coastal suburban area in Dumfries and Galloway, situated near the town of Stranraer and overlooking the sea. Stranraer Town has a relatively low elevation of around 7 metres, and its proximity to the coast has influenced its development. Stranraer Town is characterised by predominantly flat-type housing, which is common in many Scottish coastal towns.
AdBlue drains in Stranraer Town and across Dumfries and Galloway
Stranraer Town is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the places near it, Dicks Hill and Sheuchan Parks among them, across the DG postcode area. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DG9 7.
No need to move the car. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Agnew Park, a side street close to Princess Victoria Memorial: we drain it where it sits. Guessing won't help behind Millenium Centre, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Stranraer Town drivers, the short version
Tip nothing till you've read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around Dumfries and Galloway.