Auchterderran: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, when your engine hasn't run, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle is in Auchterderran. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it takes place and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels around Cardenden, as well as Auchterderran, carry on two liquids; the engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of motors have a single flap for both, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think which cap to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Auchterderran: how it happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Balgreggie Road, or on the way home in the car park outside Railway Tavern.
The old car's cap is where your hand reaches — but a hire car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange car.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Whether it happens in Bowhill or the middle of Auchterderran, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Dundonald or a forecourt around Auchterderran, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Open the filler flap and check for a label — many cars show which belongs in each filler just there.
- The handbook says where it lives when the filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Cardenden? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not when the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
For the day the warning appears — wherever it is around Fife — a routine to follow.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Woodend Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you've located the filler and read the cap.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Auchterderran already?
Brief order, then. Top of that: your motor stays unstarted. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the Sainsbury's, ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump. At home in Auchterderran? So the vehicle remains put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M90 — under 5 miles out of Auchterderran — at the first junction. A short hop across Auchterderran is a smaller job than a run towards Dunfermline, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Auchterderran: what takes place when our engineers arrive
By the local primary school, close to Auchterderran Parish Church or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it's run, because the replies determine this work and our quote. During the phone call itself, you hear the price — before anything else.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out unaided. Hence it counts more. A test is last: before that, clean diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced as needed. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it's running properly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork your insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Auchterderran and where it is
Auchterderran is a village in Fife, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 88 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Auchterderran lies approximately 9 miles from Dunfermline and is surrounded by nearby places such as Bowhill, Woodend, and Jamphlars. Auchterderran has a population of around 1525 residents, making it a small but established community. Auchterderran is located in a scenic area, with the city of Dunfermline and its amenities within easy reach.
AdBlue drains around Auchterderran, and Fife beyond
Woodend and Jamphlars are among the places near Auchterderran, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout KY postcodes. Quickest of all: give a KY5 0 postcode for our van.
No need to move the vehicle. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a road by Auchterderran War Memorial, or a lay-by on the way to Balgreggie Park. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of John Thomson Grave, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Auchterderran motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it is, wherever around Fife: switch the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.