AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Letham: How It Happens and How to Avoid It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103. Around Letham, finding it before the engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to ensure it doesn't — useful if you are reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of current diesels on the roads round Letham and Mains of Balgavies carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean it, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Some cars put the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. Filling your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
Letham: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
It is rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste follows 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 West Hemming Street, or on the way home in the car park outside Commercial Inn.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once begun, carries on. It takes a few seconds, be it out in Bowriefauld or bang in the heart of Letham.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in East Mains of Burnside or a forecourt in Letham, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Many cars give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Cannot see it next to the diesel filler? Then check below the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual says where.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Arbroath, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Angus that is.
- Switch off after you park — flat ground, motor off, and not rushed by The Square on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly through its own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Letham?
Don't start the engine: that's where the short order of things begins. Do not switch the ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is sucked from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
Ask the staff to help roll the car away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Gulf, the Asda or anywhere else. On your own drive around Letham? Then the car remains where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Letham sits under 50 miles from the M90; there, use the next exit. A short hop across Letham is a smaller job than a run towards Dundee, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers turn up in Letham
Wherever the vehicle came to rest, whether by the local primary school, beside Feuars' Hall or at home, the van travels to it. Both the work and our price depend on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. That quote comes on the call, before any van leaves.
Your system is then flushed thoroughly, once the tank is emptied. 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. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and tested to confirm it runs correctly, all before our engineers head off.
Using pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour after our technicians are there. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, have a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Letham, for a moment
Letham is a village in Angus, Scotland, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 100 metres. Letham lies near the city of Dundee, approximately 14 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Bowriefauld, Dunnichen, and Milldens. Letham has a population of around 1439 people and predominantly features detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Angus, Letham included
Dunnichen and Milldens are among the places near Letham, a village, that the same vans cover, over DD postcodes. Our van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting DD8 2.
The vehicle does not need to move. Wherever it sits — near Dunnichen, Letham & Kirkden Parish Church, on a layby en route to Dempster Park, on a drive — that is where it is cleared. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Church Hall.
Letham motorists: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in Angus, if AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.