Blackford: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine has not turned, it is emptied and fully purged where the vehicle is in Blackford. The remainder of this page covers why it happens and how to make sure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Blackford and The Grange carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for both, while some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the slip lives.
Blackford: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a drive off Charterhall Grove before work, or in the car park outside John Leslie heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. It's seconds, be it out in West Mains or right in the centre of Blackford.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Sciennes or a forecourt in Blackford, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives when the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at Edinburgh Waverley? Ask the person who drove it last before you set off, not when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever around City of Edinburgh the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Blackford Avenue.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, yet it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Blackford?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Don't switch the 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 the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Sainsbury's, ask the staff to help push the car away from the pump. If you are on your own driveway around Blackford, leave it where it sits.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M8, under 5 miles from Blackford, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 3 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Blackford.
Our arrival around Blackford, and what happens next
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near Reid Memorial Church or on your own driveway. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and whether it ran: our engineers ask because those replies decide both work and price. During the phone call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it is left. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Before leaving, our technicians start the car and check that it's running properly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run need about half an hour after our technicians arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Blackford and where it is
Blackford is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the River Almond and close to the city centre. Blackford sits at an elevation of around 74 metres, with the nearby Water of Leith also influencing the local landscape. Blackford is characterised by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is typical of many areas in Edinburgh. Blackford is located near other suburban areas, including West Mains and Grange Park.
AdBlue drains in Blackford and across City of Edinburgh
Grange Park and Newington are among the towns near Blackford, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, throughout EH postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning EH9 3, and our van gets there fastest.
There's no need to shift the car. The drain happens on the spot, be it a drive, a street by Harrison Memorial Arch, or a layby towards Permaculture Garden. Assuming doesn't help behind Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, on a border, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Blackford people
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave it off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around City of Edinburgh.