Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Comely Bank: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off then call 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. In Comely Bank, finding it before the motor turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush on the spot. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it happens and how to stop it ever happening.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels in Dean, as well as Comely Bank, carry on two fluids; the motor takes just the diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There is a filler on each tank. Plenty of motors have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake lives in that gap.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Comely Bank?
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 altogether, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Comely Bank Road before work, or in the car park at The Raeburn on the way home.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That's a second thing: an unfamiliar motor.
Lastly, the bottle fits: diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as easily, and once the tip begins, no part stops it. Whether it occurs in Stockbridge or the middle of Comely Bank, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Check these before pouring, on a forecourt around Comely Bank or a driveway over in Craigleith. A few seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Check for it.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel filler? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside your boot — the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Haymarket? Ask whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in City of Edinburgh, follow this routine.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Learmonth Park.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Finish once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour gently using its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? So stop right there. Stage five is out.
Comely Bank: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition is switched on — so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — Morrisons, Shell or another — the staff will normally help push the car clear, when you ask. If you are on your own driveway in Comely Bank, leave the vehicle where it is.
Where your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch the vehicle off. Leave the M8 — under 5 miles out of Comely Bank — at the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Comely Bank is smaller a job than a run of under 3 miles to Edinburgh, so say.
Comely Bank: what takes place when our engineers arrive
Wherever the car came to rest, whether by the local primary school, beside True Jesus Church (St Lukes) or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — which liquid, which quantity, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. That price comes over the phone, before any van leaves.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more here than with petrol. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Your engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers leave.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Comely Bank itself
Comely Bank is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the coast and approximately 1.3 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Comely Bank is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is close to nearby places such as Stockbridge and Inverleith. Comely Bank sits at an elevation of around 23 metres, with views of the surrounding area.
Comely Bank and City of Edinburgh: AdBlue drains across the area
Over EH postcodes, the teams covering Comely Bank — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, Inverleith and Orchard Brae included. A postcode starting EH4 1 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to move the car. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by St Stephens Comely Bank, or a layby towards Learmonth Gardens. Assuming won't help behind St Ninians Episcopal Church, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Comely Bank people: the short version
Pour nothing till you have read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the vehicle off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it sits, anywhere across City of Edinburgh.