Borrowfield: 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 the motor and your ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine hasn't run, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the vehicle is in Borrowfield. The remainder of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Not one fluid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Borrowfield and Ferryden carry, with diesel feeding your engine. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
There is a filler on each tank. Plenty of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in the gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Borrowfield?
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from your car, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Lunan Avenue, or at Black Abbot on the way home that evening.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, keeps on. It takes seconds, be it in Hillside or bang in the heart of Borrowfield.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Borrowfield forecourt or a driveway over in Logie, take a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Montrose.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in Angus the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by Paterson Place at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Borrowfield?
Short order, then. First: your motor stays unstarted. Keep your ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Asda, BP or any other — the attendants will normally help roll your car away, when you ask. Your own driveway in Borrowfield is where it should stay.
Where your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the car off. On the M90, under 50 miles from Borrowfield, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Dundee, under 50 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Borrowfield.
Our arrival around Borrowfield, and what occurs next
By the local primary school, close to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine the work and the price. Nobody sets off until you've had the quote by phone.
Then the tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The motor is started next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before we go.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once this job is done. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Borrowfield itself
Borrowfield is a coastal suburban area in Angus, Scotland, with a population of around 2570 people. Borrowfield sits at a low elevation of 11 metres, near the towns of Hillside, Montrose, and Inchbraoch. Borrowfield is characterized by its predominance of terraced housing, typical of many Scottish coastal towns. Borrowfield is located near the city of Dundee, which is 26.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Borrowfield, and Angus beyond
Borrowfield is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the places around it, Montrose and Inchbraoch among them, across the DD postcode area. A postcode starting DD10 9 gets our van to you fastest.
The car does not need to shift. Wherever it stands — beside Montrose Baptist Church, in a layby heading to Elephant Park, at home — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Borrowfield Community Centre.
In short, for Borrowfield drivers
Tip no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Angus.