Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Carnock
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down a moment, keep your ignition and engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Carnock. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it happens and the ways to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many newer diesels around Black Muir, as well as Carnock, carry on two liquids; the engine gets just your diesel. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the gas to fresh it, from its own tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Carnock?
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Main Street, or on the way home in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Unfamiliar motors are next, as well. Rentals, new vehicles and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once started, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether in Gowkhall or bang in the centre of Carnock.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Whether a Carnock forecourt or a driveway out in Cowstrandburn, take a couple of seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it is when your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 outside Dunfermline City.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
Anywhere across Fife the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never rushed beside Camps Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Carnock?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it's the Thames Petroleum or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help roll your car away from the petrol pump. At home in Carnock? So your car remains put.
Where your motor has been run by now, stop safely and switch it off. On the A823(M), under 5 miles from Carnock, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Hopping across Carnock is smaller work than a run of under 5 miles towards Dunfermline, and so tell us.
When we turn up in Carnock, what takes place?
Our van comes to the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own drive, beside Carnock Parish Church, or by the local primary school. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what liquid, which amount, and whether it's run — so our technicians ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. After the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if required — clean diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Unrun cars usually mean a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive. The equipment is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Carnock
Carnock is a small village in Fife, situated near the coast and approximately 3 miles from Dunfermline. Carnock sits at an elevation of around 103 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Carnock is close to several nearby places, including Gowkhall, Oakley, and Backmuir of Pitfirrane, and is home to a population of around 848 people.
AdBlue drains across Fife, Carnock included
Carnock is a coastal village, and our vans that cover it also work the places around it, Oakley and Backmuir of Pitfirrane among them, across the KY postcode area. A postcode starting KY12 9 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. Anywhere it sits — beside War Memorial, in a layby en route to Burn Brae, on a drive — that's where it is emptied. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Carnock and Gowkhall Community Centre, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The short version for Carnock drivers
Pour no AdBlue until you have read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off then phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Fife.