Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Troon
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't turned, it is drained and fully flushed where the car is in Troon. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is how plenty of modern diesels around Troon and Treslothan run, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Troon?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and letting it run dry means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Pendarves Street, perhaps outside Beacon Inn on the way home after work.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
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 after it has started. Croft Mitchell or the heart of Troon: it is the same few seconds in both.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Bolenowe or a forecourt around Troon.
- Check the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark what belongs in each filler just there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Check when you collect a hire car or company car — at Camborne's car park, perhaps — not once the warning comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Cornwall that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor off, and not in a rush beside New Road on the verge.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read it.
- The two behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed before raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Stage five is out.
Troon: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Short order, then. First: the engine remains off. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Morrisons or any other — the staff will usually help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. On your own drive in Troon? Then the car remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means where to come off if you are on the M5, over 50 miles from Troon. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Troon is smaller work than a trip of under 15 miles towards Truro, and so tell us.
What takes place when our technicians turn up in Troon
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by Troon Community Primary School, near Troon Methodist Church or at home, the van travels to it. Those answers decide this work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it has run. Nobody sets off before you've had our price over the phone.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter flushed or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of the vehicle. We do not leave until it has been started and is running correctly.
Unrun vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours once the job is done. 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 Troon, for a moment
Troon is a village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 166 metres, approximately 11 miles from the city of Truro. Troon has a population of around 1823 people and is characterized by predominantly terraced housing. Troon is close to nearby places such as Croft Mitchell, Stennack, and Carwynnen, and is located in the South West region of England, about 242 miles from London.
Troon and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout TR postcodes, the vans that cover Troon — a rural village — work the surrounding spots too, Carwynnen and Stennack included. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting TR14 9.
No need to shift the vehicle. Wherever it sits — near Troon Church Hall, on a layby en route to Grenville Gardens Recreation Ground, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Chimney, close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
Troon motorists: the short version
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Leave it switched off then call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, throughout Cornwall.