Cammo: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Cammo, finding it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Many current diesels on the roads round Cammo and Bughtlin carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
There's a filler for each tank. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
Cammo: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
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 completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Cammo Gardens before work, or in the car park outside Mid Yoken Pub on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange vehicle.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour starts, no part halts it. Whether it happens in Barnton or the middle of Cammo, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Cammo forecourt or a drive out in Drumbrae, take a couple of seconds on these before any goes in.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Check for it.
- Cannot see it next to your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Edinburgh Gateway, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever around City of Edinburgh the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Cammo Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have found your filler and read it.
- Both behind one flap? Then make sure the lid on your diesel side is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish when your tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Before starting your car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap never came off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Leave out stage five entirely.
Cammo: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that is where the short order of things begins. The fuel pump starts on many diesels the moment the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the Shell or the Morrisons, ask the staff to help push your car away from the pump. At home around Cammo? Then your car remains where it is.
Where the engine has been run already, pull over safely then switch it off. Cammo sits under 3 miles from the M8; there, take the next exit. Distance matters — a quick hop across Cammo makes a smaller job than driving under 5 miles towards Edinburgh — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians get there in Cammo
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, near James V attacked at Cramond Brig A.D.1532 or on your own driveway. We ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run, since the answers settle the work and the quote. Nobody sets off until you've had the price over the phone.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a full flush of the system. 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 here than with petrol. Once the filter has been cleaned — or renewed, where required — clean diesel goes in, and then the car is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unstarted cars usually need a half-hour visit from arrival. The equipment is fine on a live filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Cammo itself
Cammo is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the coast at an elevation of 33 metres. Cammo lies approximately 4.9 miles northwest of Edinburgh's city centre, within commuting distance of the capital. Cammo is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, with nearby amenities in Barnton, Braepark, and Cramond Bridge. Cammo is home to around 2388 residents, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Cammo and across City of Edinburgh
Cammo is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Braepark and Cramond Bridge among them, across the EH postcode area. A postcode starting EH4 8 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Haugh Park, a side street close to Pet Margorie Plaque: we drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Standing Stone.
The short version for Cammo people
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across City of Edinburgh.