Why It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Culross
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, when the motor has not turned, it's emptied and fully rinsed where the car sits around Culross. Here before the event? Then the rest explains how it comes about and what to stop it happening at all.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of newer diesels around Culross and Shires Mill run, with diesel feeding the motor. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, different fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the arrangement on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Filling the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Culross: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Erskine Brae before work, or in the car park at Red Lion Inn on the way home.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and after the tip begins, no part halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Culross or out in Blairburn.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a drive in Low Torry or a forecourt in Culross.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually isn't. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many cars show which belongs in each inlet just there.
- Can't see it next to the diesel filler? In that case check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Linlithgow? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in Fife that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Back Causeway.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your 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. Leave out step five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Culross already?
Don't start your motor: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Hastons of Bo'ness, the Esso or anywhere else. If you're on your own driveway in Culross, leave the car where it sits.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. The next junction is where to come off when you are on the M876, under 5 miles from Culross. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Culross is less a job than a run of under 10 miles to Dunfermline, and so tell us.
What occurs when our technicians arrive in Culross
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, near Hanging Gardens Viewpoint or on your own driveway. Those answers settle the work and the quote, so our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, after that tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears out unaided. That is why it matters more. A test comes last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. We don't go until it has been fired up and is running smoothly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Culross, briefly
Culross is a small town on the north shore of the Firth of Forth in Fife, with a population of around 746 people. Culross sits at a low elevation of 25 metres, close to the coastal towns and villages of Blairburn, Low Valleyfield, and High Valleyfield. Culross is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located near the city of Dunfermline, which is 6.5 miles away. Culross is situated in a scenic area with views across the Firth of Forth.
AdBlue drains in Culross and across Fife
Over KY postcodes, our vans covering Culross — a coastal town — work the nearby locations too, High Valleyfield and Low Valleyfield included. Give a postcode that starts KY12 8, and our van gets there quickest.
Moving your car is not necessary. The drain takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a road near Culross Palace, or a lay-by on the way to West Green. Guessing won't help at the back of Mercat Cross, on a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Culross motorists: the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Fife, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.