AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Camelon: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Pause here a minute if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Camelon, catching it before your motor turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
No single liquid but two: that is how plenty of newer diesels around Camelon and Tamfourhill run, with diesel for the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying cleans the fumes.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, poured by a driver who has to stop and think which filler to use. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Camelon
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a drive off Union Road, or heading home in the car park at The Canal Inn.
Unfamiliar motors are second, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It takes seconds, whether out in Bantaskin or bang in the centre of Camelon.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Greenbank or a forecourt around Camelon, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at the nearest station? Check with whoever drove it last before leaving, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Falkirk that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Abercrombie Street.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, once finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Daft, yes, yet it does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently through its own spout.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel filler? That's where you stop. Stage five is off limits.
Camelon: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start the engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it by itself runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
At a forecourt — Tesco, Esso or another — the attendants will normally help roll your car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Camelon.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M876, under 3 miles from Camelon, that means the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Stirling, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Camelon.
Our arrival around Camelon, and what happens next
Our van reaches the car wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Falkirk Sheriff Court, or outside the local primary school. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which fluid, what quantity, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. During the phone call itself, you are told the price — before anything else.
Emptying your tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Then our engineers start it and make sure it runs smoothly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, as long as your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Camelon, for a moment
Camelon is a village situated on the riverside in Falkirk, with a relatively low elevation of 33 metres. Camelon lies near several smaller communities, including Bantaskin and Summerford, and is close to the city of Stirling. Camelon has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly composed of flats. Camelon is located approximately 9 miles from Stirling and 345 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Falkirk, Camelon included
Camelon is a village, and our teams that cover it also work the places near it, Summerford and Merchiston among them, across the FK postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a FK1 4 postcode for our van.
Shifting your car isn't necessary. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Camelon Education Centre, a lay-by on the way to Sensory Garden, a driveway. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Bethany Hall Church, ring and ask rather than assuming.
In short, for Camelon drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it wherever it is, anywhere around Falkirk: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.