How It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Grove
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if your motor hasn't run, it is emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car is in The Grove. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of modern diesels seen round The Grove and Marchmount carry another liquid as well. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around The Grove
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off The Grove before work, or in the car park at The Lochar Inn on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
Lastly, the bottle fits: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. Whether it occurs in Bloomfield or the middle of The Grove, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a The Grove forecourt or a drive out in Locharbriggs, spend a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says which.
- Ask 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 at Dumfries.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — wherever you are in Dumfries and Galloway — a routine to follow.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Tinwald Downs Roundabout.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Stage five is out.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Grove?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your engine stays unstarted. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Esso, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally lend a hand to push your car away when asked. If you're on your own driveway in The Grove, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. The Grove lies under 10 miles from the A74(M); there, take the first junction. About how far did it go? Crossing The Grove is smaller a job than a trip of under 50 miles towards Carlisle, so tell us.
Our arrival in The Grove, and what occurs next
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether by the local primary school, near Lochthorne Library or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Those answers decide the work and our price, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Then your tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes out unaided. That is why it matters more. Once your filter is flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then the car gets tested. Next our technicians start the car and confirm it runs smoothly before leaving.
Unstarted cars usually mean a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About The Grove, for a moment
The Grove is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Dumfries and Galloway, with a relatively low elevation of 18 metres. The Grove lies near several other local places, including Bloomfield, Heathhall, and Nunholm, and is located approximately 29 miles from Carlisle. The Grove has a population of around 1089 people and features predominantly detached housing. The Grove is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 286 miles away.
AdBlue drains in The Grove and across Dumfries and Galloway
Being a residential suburb, The Grove has the same vans as surrounding areas — Heathhall, Nunholm — right through DG postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: quote a DG1 1 postcode for the van.
The car doesn't need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum, a lay-by on the way to Harries Firs, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Dumfries Aviation Group War Memorial.
For The Grove motorists, the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it stands, wherever in Dumfries and Galloway: keep the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.