Devonside: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Devonside, catching it before your motor turns normally means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it occurs and the ways to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how many modern diesels near Devonside and Fishcross run, with diesel for your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas 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. The diesel side is filled at the pump all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less commonly. It's in that gap that the error lives.
Devonside: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off The Glen before work, or in the car park outside Volunteer Arms on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and if it is gone, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to 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, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's a few seconds, whether in Tillicoultry or right in the heart of Devonside.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Sauchie or a forecourt in Devonside, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Alloa? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the day the light comes on — anywhere it is in Clackmannanshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Alexandra Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? Then make sure the lid on the diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Slowly is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Before you start the car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Devonside already?
Short list, then. First: the engine remains off. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels it alone runs your pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help push the vehicle clear of the pump if you're on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Asda or anywhere else. If you are on your own driveway around Devonside, leave it where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. The next exit means where to come off if you're on the M876, under 10 miles from Devonside. Mileage counts — a short hop across Devonside is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Stirling — so tell us about how far it went.
Devonside: what happens when we arrive
Outside the local primary school, near Devonvale Mills War Memorial or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers determine the work and our quote. You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs smoothly, all before our engineers leave.
If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Before we get there, have a look at your policy; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Devonside
Devonside is a village situated on the banks of the River Forth in Clackmannanshire, with a relatively low elevation of 22 metres. Devonside lies close to the Ochil Hills and is near the towns of Tillicoultry and Coalsnaughton. Devonside has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly composed of flats, and is located near the Devon Village. Devonside is approximately 7.8 miles from the city of Stirling, making it a commuter base for the city.
AdBlue drains around Devonside and across Clackmannanshire
Coalsnaughton and Devon Village are among the places around Devonside, a village, that the same teams cover, over FK postcodes. A postcode starting FK13 6 gets the van to you fastest.
Shifting your car is not necessary. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Tillicoultry Community Garden, a side street near Devonvale Hall: our engineers drain the vehicle where it stands. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of War Memorial, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Devonside drivers, the short version
Tip no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere across Clackmannanshire: switch the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.