Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Carron: Why It Occurs
Keep the engine and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your vehicle sits around Carron, is normally all it needs if found before your engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Not one fluid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Carron and Mungal carry, with diesel for your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of vehicles the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less commonly. It's in the gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Carron: how it occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Haste follows from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Carronshore Road, or heading home in the car park at The Carron - Grouse Inn.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Whether it happens in Carronshore or the middle of Carron, it's the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, on a forecourt around Carron or a drive over in Stenhousemuir. Seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or company car — at Larbert's car park, perhaps — rather than once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across Falkirk the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Park Crescent, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the vehicle: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Carron already?
Brief list, then. First: the engine stays off. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Esso, Gulf or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing your car away if asked. If you are on your own driveway in Carron, leave it where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the M9 — under 3 miles out of Carron — at the next exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Stirling, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Carron.
What takes place when we arrive around Carron
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Falkirk Free Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — which fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. No one heads out until you have had our price over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out unaided. That is why it counts more. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a test of your car. Then we fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor hasn't run need about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents your insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Carron itself
Carron is a coastal village in Falkirk, situated near the Firth of Forth at an elevation of around 8 metres. Carron lies close to the nearby settlements of Carronshore, Bainsford, and Langlees, and is approximately 8 miles from the city of Stirling. Carron has a population of around 2091 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Carron is also relatively distant from major cities like London, being around 346 miles away.
AdBlue drains round Carron, and Falkirk beyond
Bainsford and Langlees are among the towns near Carron, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, over FK postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting FK2 8.
The vehicle stays put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Cobblebrae Community Woodland, a side street close to Arthur's O'On: our engineers drain the car where it is. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Dawson Community Church? By a border? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
The short version for Carron people
First, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank after all? Keep the vehicle switched off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Falkirk.