AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Freeport Village: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
Keep the engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Freeport Village. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Freeport Village and Addiebrownhill carry another liquid too. Its own tank holds it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, where a spray cleans the gas.
There is a filler for each tank. Plenty of cars share a single flap for both, while others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled at every filling station call-out, week in, week out. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone working out where it goes. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank happens in Freeport Village
Carelessness seldom explains it. Instead is three things lining up together.
On a driveway off B7015 before work, or in the car park outside The Bluebell Inn on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and if it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
The old car's cap is where the hand goes — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second thing: a new car.
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 after it has started. Mossend or the heart of Freeport Village: it is the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Check these before pouring, at a forecourt around Freeport Village or a drive out in Loganlea. Seconds, no more.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually don't.
- The size. On plenty of cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it beside the diesel inlet? Then check beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at West Calder? Check with whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Lothian that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, motor off, and never in a rush by Blackburn Road at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Silly, yes, but it does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where the two sit under a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the vehicle: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Never go on to stage five.
Freeport Village: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the attendants to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the BP, the Morrisons Daily or anywhere else. At home around Freeport Village? So the vehicle stays where it is.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The next junction means the place to leave when you are on the M8, under 3 miles from Freeport Village. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Freeport Village is less work than a trip of under 25 miles towards Dunfermline, and so tell us.
What happens when we arrive in Freeport Village
Anywhere your car has stopped, be it outside the local primary school, beside The Five Sisters or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it has run — so our technicians ask. Nobody sets off until you have heard the quote over the phone.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Testing is at the end: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Your engine is started next and checked to confirm it runs smoothly, all before our engineers head off.
If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Your insurer will ask for the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Freeport Village
Freeport Village is a small locality situated on the riverside in West Lothian, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 651 residents. Freeport Village sits at an elevation of 159 metres, near the towns of Mossend, West Calder, and Addiewell. Freeport Village is located approximately 15.8 miles from Dunfermline, the nearest city, and is part of the wider Scottish landscape. Freeport Village has a relatively rural setting, despite being within commuting distance of larger towns.
AdBlue drains in Freeport Village and across West Lothian
Throughout EH postcodes, our vans that cover Freeport Village — a small village — work the nearby places too, Addiewell and West Calder among them. A postcode starting EH55 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains put. The drain takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a road by West Kirk of Calder, or a lay-by on the way to Addiewell North Bing. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of West Kirk Church Hall.
The short version for Freeport Village motorists
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around West Lothian: switch the car off and phone 0333 366 0103.