Grangemouth: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then set this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain and a full flush, done just where your car sits around Grangemouth, is usually what it needs when found before your engine runs. The rest of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads round Grangemouth and Wholeflats carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it.
There's a filler for every tank. Other motors put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot more have the two side by side behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Grangemouth
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
On a drive off Bo'ness Road before work, or in the car park outside Grill & Banter heading home: that's where the hurried top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it's empty, limp mode follows.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is a second factor: a strange vehicle.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Whether it takes place in Glensburgh or the middle of Grangemouth, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Old Polmont or a forecourt in Grangemouth, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On many cars, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — from Polmont's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light appears.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around Falkirk, use this routine.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Station Road.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you have found your filler and read the cap.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel filler stays closed ahead of raising the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays out.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Grangemouth?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things starts. Don't switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with extra diesel won't work, since AdBlue settles to the base instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is pulled from.
At a forecourt — Asda, BP or another — the attendants will normally help push the car away, if you ask. At home in Grangemouth? So the vehicle stays put.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M9 — under 3 miles out of Grangemouth — at the first exit. A short hop across Grangemouth is a smaller job than a run towards Stirling, under 15 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What occurs when our technicians arrive around Grangemouth
By the local primary school, close to Grangemouth Library or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. What liquid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our engineers ask since those answers decide the work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears away by itself. Hence it counts more. After the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the car gets tested. Before we leave, we start the engine and confirm that it's running properly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Grangemouth
Grangemouth is a coastal town in Falkirk, situated on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, with a population of around 9513 people. Grangemouth has a relatively low elevation of 7 metres above sea level and is located near several smaller communities, including Glensburgh, Bowhouse, and Skinflats. Grangemouth is characterized by a high proportion of flat-type housing, reflecting its urban nature. Grangemouth is also positioned near the city of Stirling, which is approximately 10.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Grangemouth and across Falkirk
Bowhouse and Skinflats are among the places near Grangemouth, a coastal town, that the same teams cover, over FK postcodes. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting FK3 8.
Your car doesn't need to shift. Draining takes place on the spot, whether a drive, a street near Grangemouth Town Hall, or a layby towards Zetland Park. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Grangemouth Bowling Club, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In short, for Grangemouth drivers
Before you pour, read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Falkirk.