How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cambusbarron
Leave the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Cambusbarron, catching it before the motor runs normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page covers the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel feeds your engine — but plenty of current diesels driven around Cambusbarron and Stirling carry a second liquid as well. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two side by side behind one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
Cambusbarron: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Chapelcroft before work, or in the car park at Foresters on the way home.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it slides in just as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Torbrex or bang in the centre of Cambusbarron.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Cambusbarron or a driveway out in Raploch. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Stirling, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Stirling that is.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, engine stopped, and never rushed by The Brae on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and 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.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check again that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Cambusbarron: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Short list, then. Top of it: the engine remains off. Don't switch your ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you are at a forecourt — the Shell, the BP or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Cambusbarron.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your motor has already run. Cambusbarron lies under a mile from the M9; on it, use the next junction. Distance counts — a short hop across Cambusbarron is a smaller job than driving under 3 miles to Stirling — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Cambusbarron: what happens when we arrive
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near War Memorial or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you have had our price over the phone.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, after the tank is cleared. 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of the vehicle. Then our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark outside a house. No money in advance; you settle up that day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Cambusbarron and where it is
Cambusbarron is a village situated near Stirling, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties, and is located at an elevation of 35 metres. Cambusbarron sits close to the nearby settlements of Torbrex, Borestone, and St Ninians, and is approximately 1.4 miles from Stirling city centre. Cambusbarron has a population of around 2107 people, and is part of the wider Stirling area. Cambusbarron is also relatively distant from London, at around 354.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Cambusbarron and across Stirling
Being a rural village, Cambusbarron has the same vans as surrounding areas — Borestone, St Ninians — all the way across FK postcodes and the wider area around them. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting FK7 9.
There's no need to move the car. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a driveway, a street by Bruce Memorial Church, or a layby towards King George Field. Assuming doesn't help behind Cambusbarron Library, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Cambusbarron people
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere in Stirling: keep it off and call 0333 366 0103.