Carnoustie: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. In Carnoustie, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers how it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels in Muirdrum, as well as Carnoustie, run on two fluids; your engine takes only your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. Rarely filled, AdBlue usually comes from a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what cap it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Carnoustie: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Fox Street, or heading home in the car park outside Stag's Head Inn.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have 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. Whether it takes place in Panbride or the middle of Carnoustie, it is the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Carnoustie or a driveway out in Barry. Seconds, that's all.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel filler? In that case look below the bonnet or inside your boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside the nearest station? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before leaving, not once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Angus — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of High Street, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So make sure the cap on the diesel side is still closed before lifting the bottle.
- Stop when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Carnoustie: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels it alone runs the pump. Topping up with diesel will not weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the base of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The staff at Asda, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own drive in Carnoustie.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the M90, under 50 miles from Carnoustie, that means the next exit. Mileage counts — a short hop across Carnoustie is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles towards Dundee — so say about how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in Carnoustie
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Carnoustie Municipal Buildings or on your own drive. Both the work and our quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and whether it has run — so we ask. No one sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. More than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, however long it is left. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle is tested. Before leaving, our technicians fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Carnoustie, for a moment
Carnoustie is a coastal town in Angus, Scotland, situated on the north sea coast at an elevation of around 12 metres. Carnoustie lies approximately 10.5 miles east of Dundee and is near the villages of Panbride, Clayholes, and Inchbrae. Carnoustie has a population of around 8945 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Carnoustie is located about 360.6 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Angus, Carnoustie included
As a coastal town, Carnoustie shares its vans nearby areas — Clayholes, Inchbrae — right across DD postcodes and the wider area beyond. Quickest of all: give a DD7 6 postcode for the van.
There's no need to move the vehicle. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street close to Carnoustie Library, a lay-by on the way to Dr George McConnell Memorial Garden, a drive. Assuming won't help behind Dr George McConnell Memorial Garden, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and check.
Carnoustie motorists: the short version
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Angus.