AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dovecote: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page aside for now, keep your ignition and engine off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Usually, if the engine hasn't run, it is drained and fully cleaned where the vehicle sits in Dovecote. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Not one fluid but two: that is what plenty of modern diesels near Dovecote and Nungate carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to your exhaust, where a spray cleans the fumes.
There's a filler on each tank. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
Dovecote: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a drive off Buchanan Avenue, or on the way home in the car park at The Plough Tavern Hotel.
Then the car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Dovecote or out in Black House Steading.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Be it a Dovecote forecourt or a drive over in Samuelston, spend a few seconds on these before any is poured in.
- Check the cap instead of going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally are not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Drem, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across East Lothian that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of A6093, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? Then confirm the cap on the diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five entirely.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dovecote already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the base rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Shell, JET or another — the attendants will usually help push your car away, if you ask. At home around Dovecote? Then the car remains where it is.
Where your motor has run already, pull over safely and turn the car off. Come off the M8 — under 25 miles out of Dovecote — at the first exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Edinburgh, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Dovecote.
What takes place when our engineers arrive around Dovecote
By the local primary school, near 2nd Haddington Scout Group or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run, since those replies settle this work and the price. During the call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. The filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after our engineers arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Dovecote, for a moment
Dovecote is a locality situated on the riverside in East Lothian, with an elevation of 58 metres, and is located near the town of Haddington. Dovecote lies approximately 15 miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, and is part of the wider East Lothian area. Dovecote has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are the most common, and its population is around 1793 residents. Dovecote is close to other nearby places such as Black House Steading and Hailes Terrace.
AdBlue drains in Dovecote and across East Lothian
Dovecote is a small village, and our teams that cover it also work the places around it, Haddington and Hailes Terrace among them, across the EH postcode area. A postcode starting EH41 4 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a road near Burns Family Well, or a layby on the way to Backburn Wood. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Robert Ferguson of Raith Memorial.
In short, for Dovecote motorists
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around East Lothian, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.