AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Troqueer: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, keep the ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Troqueer, finding it before the motor turns normally means a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many modern diesels in Suffolk Hill, as well as Troqueer, carry on two fluids; the engine gets only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue normally goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who has to stop and think which cap it needs. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
Troqueer: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the vehicle, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Rotchell Park, or at Ship Inn on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap used on the old one.
No part stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Maxwelltown or the middle of Troqueer, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Troqueer or a drive out in Nithside. Seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark what goes in which inlet just there.
- The handbook shows where it is when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you collect a rental or fleet car — from Dumfries's car park, say — rather than once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere across Dumfries and Galloway the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Troqueer Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read it.
- The diesel cap remains on. When the two sit under a flap, make sure it is closed before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Troqueer?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, since on many diesels it by itself runs your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Morrisons or any other — the attendants will normally help push the vehicle away, if you ask. Your own drive in Troqueer is the place it stays.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then turn off. On the A74(M), under 15 miles from Troqueer, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Troqueer is less work than a trip of under 50 miles towards Carlisle, so tell us.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in Troqueer
By the local primary school, near Dumfries Museum or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, because those answers determine this work and our quote. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
After that: a drain, then a full flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. Once the filter is flushed — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your car is tested. After that our engineers fire it up and confirm it runs properly 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 fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Troqueer itself
Troqueer is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Dumfries and Galloway, with a mix of flat housing and local amenities. Troqueer sits at an elevation of 23 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Maxwelltown and Dumfries. Troqueer is located near the town of Laurieknowe and is approximately 29 miles from the city of Carlisle. Troqueer has a population of around 5105 residents.
Troqueer and Dumfries and Galloway: AdBlue drains across the area
Troqueer is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Dumfries and Laurieknowe among them, across the DG postcode area. Give a postcode beginning DG2 7, and the van gets there fastest.
Shifting the vehicle is not necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Dock Park, a side street near Camera Obscura: our technicians drain the car where it sits. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Old Mortality and his pony, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Troqueer motorists
Tip nothing until you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere around Dumfries and Galloway: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.