AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Deanston: How It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. Normally, when the engine has not turned, it's emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits in Deanston. Nothing happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of newer diesels around Blairdrummond, as well as Deanston, run on two fluids; your motor gets only your diesel. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of motors have a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in on each filling station call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and normally by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the slip lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Deanston
Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the vehicle, and running dry means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Grierson Drive, or outside Red Lion Inn on the way home after work.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
No part stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Buchany or the middle of Deanston: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Coldoch or a forecourt in Deanston.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives if the filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Dunblane, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Wherever across Stirling the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Leny Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: 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 have already poured into the diesel side. Skip step five entirely.
Deanston: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's how the short order of things begins. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that is where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — Gulf, another forecourt nearby or any other — the attendants will usually help push the car clear, when you ask. Your own driveway in Deanston is where it stays.
Where the motor has run by now, pull over safely and turn it off. The next exit is the place to come off if you are on the M9, under 5 miles from Deanston. A short hop across Deanston is a smaller job than a run towards Stirling, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our technicians arrive in Deanston
Outside the local primary school, near Memorial Clock Tower or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. More than with petrol, it counts with AdBlue: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and none of it washes out on its own, however long it is left. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Deanston and where it is
Deanston is a village situated on the banks of a river in central Scotland, approximately 7.5 miles from the city of Stirling. Deanston has a relatively low elevation of around 40 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Buchany, Doune, and the Burn of Cambus. Deanston is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and a small population of around 558 residents. Deanston is located a significant distance from London, at around 361 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Stirling, Deanston included
As a village, Deanston has the same vans as surrounding places — Doune, Burn of Cambus — all the way through FK postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting FK16 6.
The vehicle remains where it is. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Doune Ponds Nature Reserve, a side street close to Deanston Distillery: our technicians drain it where it sits. Guessing won't help at the back of Deanston House, close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
In short, for Deanston people
Before you tip, read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it is, anywhere in Stirling: switch the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.