AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fairmilehead: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
Pause reading for a moment when your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and ring 0333 366 0103. Around Fairmilehead, finding it before your motor turns usually means a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels around Oxgangs, like those in Fairmilehead, run on two liquids; the engine gets just the diesel. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fairmilehead: how it takes place
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up at once.
Haste comes from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Frogston Avenue, or on the way home in the car park at Hunter's Tryst.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Comiston or the middle of Fairmilehead, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these before pouring, at a forecourt around Fairmilehead or a drive out in Mortonhall. Seconds, that's all.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally don't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on many cars. Look for it.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual will say which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Slateford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach your diesel tank
When the light comes on, wherever around City of Edinburgh, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of B701.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel filler stayed shut throughout. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third stage that the bottle went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Step five stays off limits.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Fairmilehead?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Topping up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of your tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or another forecourt will usually lend a hand to push the vehicle away if you ask. Your own driveway in Fairmilehead is the place it stays.
When your motor has been run by now, pull over somewhere safe and turn the car off. On the M8, under 5 miles from Fairmilehead, that means the next junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Fairmilehead is less work than a trip of under 5 miles towards Edinburgh, and so say.
Fairmilehead: what occurs when our technicians arrive
We come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside the local primary school, close to Fairmilehead Parish Church or on your own driveway. The answers determine this work and our quote, so our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's run. You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off.
Next: draining, then a full flush of the entire system. 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. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced as needed. After that our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs properly before we leave.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians get there, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It is worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with many policies.
About Fairmilehead, briefly
Fairmilehead is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the River Almond and overlooking the surrounding countryside. Fairmilehead sits at an elevation of 179 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Fairmilehead is located close to several nearby places, including Comiston, Lothianburn, and Swanston, and is approximately 3.6 miles from Edinburgh city centre.
AdBlue drains around Fairmilehead and across City of Edinburgh
Throughout EH postcodes, our vans that cover Fairmilehead — a residential suburb — work the surrounding spots too, Swanston and Lothianburn among them. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting EH10 7.
The vehicle remains where it is. Anywhere it sits — near Caiy Stane, in a lay-by en route to Bellrock Park, on a drive — that is where it is emptied. Tricky to pin down, like the back of St Fillan? Close to a border? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Fairmilehead drivers
First, the cap; then, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around City of Edinburgh.