Grahamsdyke: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Grahamsdyke. Nothing happened yet? Below, the rest of the page explains the reasons it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of modern diesels driven around Grahamsdyke and Boness hold another fluid as well. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Plenty of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel gets filled on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Grahamsdyke
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Gauze Road before work, or in the car park at Newtown Bar on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
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 the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, keeps on. It's seconds, whether in Newtown or bang in the centre of Grahamsdyke.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Bonhard Terrace or a forecourt around Grahamsdyke, check these. They take a few seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of motors, the AdBlue one.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — many cars mark what goes in which filler just there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that is where your filler sits if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before will know. Ask as you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Linlithgow's car park, perhaps — not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is around Falkirk — a routine to follow.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, engine off, and not rushed beside Academy Road on the verge.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after you find the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip gently through its own spout.
- Close the cap, then look once more — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the vehicle.
Discover during the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the diesel tank? That is where you stop. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Grahamsdyke?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. Keep your ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts your pump. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Esso, Hastons of Bo'ness or another forecourt will normally help pushing the car clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway around Grahamsdyke, leave the vehicle where it stands.
Already started? Stop once it's safe, then turn off. Grahamsdyke sits under 3 miles from the M9; there, take the next exit. Mileage counts — a quick hop across Grahamsdyke makes a smaller job than heading under 10 miles to Dunfermline — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Grahamsdyke, what happens?
Outside the local primary school, close to Bo'ness Community Learning & Development Base or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, since the answers settle this work and our quote. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. Hence it matters more. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
Unrun cars usually need a half-hour visit after arrival. The equipment is safe on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Grahamsdyke itself
Grahamsdyke is a suburban area in Falkirk, situated near the coast at an elevation of 68 metres, with nearby settlements including Newtown and Grangepans. Grahamsdyke lies within commuting distance of Dunfermline, which is 6.6 miles away. Grahamsdyke has a population of around 4554 people, predominantly residing in flats. Grahamsdyke is located in a region of Scotland with a mix of industrial and residential areas.
AdBlue drains across Falkirk, Grahamsdyke included
Mingle and Grangepans are among the places near Grahamsdyke, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over EH postcodes. Quickest of all: give a EH51 9 postcode for our van.
There's no need to move your car. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street by St Andrew's Parish Church, or a lay-by towards Pine Wood. Tricky to explain, like the back of Bo'ness Recreation Centre? By a county line? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
In short, for Grahamsdyke motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it is, anywhere in Falkirk: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.