Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greenlaw: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Greenlaw. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle, and its separate tank
Many newer diesels around Polwarth, as well as Greenlaw, carry on two liquids; the motor gets only the diesel. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Many of motors have a single flap for both, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the petrol pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. The error lives in that gap.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Greenlaw: how it happens
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Hurry comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Duns Road, or on the way home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, whether in Lambden or bang in the heart of Greenlaw.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Greenlaw forecourt or a drive over in Eccles, take a few seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the word "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- 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.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
When the light comes on, wherever around Scottish Borders, use this routine.
- Turn off after you park — flat ground, motor stopped, and not in a rush beside West High Street at the roadside.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Discover during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong tank? That's where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Greenlaw already?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start the motor. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Topping up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of your tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car clear if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Greenlaw.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your motor has already run. Come off the M8 — under 50 miles out of Greenlaw — at the next junction. Distance matters — a short hop across Greenlaw is a smaller job than driving under 50 miles to Edinburgh — so say about how far it went.
When we turn up around Greenlaw, what occurs?
Wherever the car has stopped, be it by the local primary school, near War Memorial or at home, our van comes to it. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: our technicians ask since the replies set both work and price. That price is given on the call, before any van leaves.
Then the tank is cleared and the system purged thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many include cover for misfuelling.
About Greenlaw, briefly
Greenlaw is a village situated on the banks of a river in the Scottish Borders, with a population of around 533 people. Greenlaw has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent. Greenlaw sits at an elevation of 151 metres, near the communities of Lambden, Hume, and East Gordon. Greenlaw is located approximately 33 miles from Edinburgh, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains around Greenlaw and across Scottish Borders
Hume and East Gordon are among the towns near Greenlaw, a village, that the same vans cover, throughout TD postcodes. Give a postcode that starts TD10 6, and the van arrives fastest.
There's no need to shift the vehicle. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a road by Mercat Cross, or a lay-by towards The Green. Tricky to explain, like the back of Greenlaw Town Hall? By a border? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
The short version for Greenlaw people
Before you tip, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Scottish Borders, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same — so leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103.