AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Linktown, and What to Do Next
One thing matters above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is whether your motor has run since. Wherever the vehicle stands — Hayfield, Linktown — never run an engine that hasn't been started yet. Usually that means emptying and properly flushing it right there around Linktown — so leave the ignition and engine off and ring 0333 366 0103. Stop the minute it is safe and turn off, if it has already run. A bigger job, yes, yet the identical opening move.
Compare what happened to a situation from the list below, anywhere across Fife you happen to be.
On a Linktown forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Only at this point, nozzle yet in your hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, right at the petrol pump. It might be the Morrisons, or the Esso, or another forecourt around Linktown.
What it means: this is the ideal location to find out. Nothing has drawn it in, so the AdBlue stays just in the tank.
Do this: keep out of the driver's seat, even if the pump wants clearing. Ask the staff to help you push the car into a parking spot, keep your receipt or the bottle, and call us from the forecourt. Our equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a live forecourt, so a vehicle that can't be pushed away gets drained where it is at the petrol pump.
Linktown, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been nagging you. Only by the recycling, the empty container in hand, did you look back at the cap you'd used at the drive. Just off Heggie's Wynd is not less likely from any other place.
In short: if the vehicle has not moved since, it is almost as good as spotting it at the pump. As it is unable to blend, AdBlue settles to the base in the tank and waits. One night standing changes none of that.
Keep the keys in the house overnight — or someone may drive it off first thing — then call us. Out in Kirkcaldy or right here around Linktown, the drain happens on your driveway. Night-time empties beside a house are no problem: the pumps are low-noise.
On the road in Linktown with AdBlue in a diesel
Filled up, pulled away, and soon the engine was turning unevenly, blowing smoke, down on power, or flashing up your dash. It might have been driving for Edinburgh, under 15 miles away, or just down Ramsay Road.
Put simply: the AdBlue has been sucked through the fuel system. It's been through your filter and the lines and, the further you went, into the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors. Each restart, like every mile, carries it deeper.
Stop safely — that is the first job — then turn everything off. Services further along are too far: on the M90, under 10 miles out of Linktown, use the next junction. It won't have cleared, and so there is no sense starting it again to check. Let us know the mileage covered when you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You've only had the car a week. The AdBlue filler is right alongside the diesel one, which you did not know, because your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. It can happen to anyone, anywhere in Fife.
In short: one extra step on top of the situations above, which turn on if it has run. The owner often needs to sign off any work, under plenty of hire and fleet agreements.
Settling it before we arrives is quicker, so ring the hire company or your fleet manager, then us. If you are stranded in the car park at Kirkcaldy, or by Philp Hall, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
Linktown: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Now and then, "I think so" is the most anyone can truthfully say. A faint ammonia whiff lingers around the filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is hard to recall. It might have been at a friend's driveway in Templehall, or in a rush by the local primary school at the school run.
Meaning? Drips outside the inlet never touch your motor at all. Once it is inside your diesel tank, though, that changes. Any AdBlue in that tank will be sucked in by firing up the vehicle, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
Do this: behave as if it got in, and don't start your motor. Ring and give the details: we would sooner confirm a tank free of AdBlue than empty one once the engine has been run.
Linktown: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever scenario you are in, the job starts the same way. Three questions are asked when we arrive — at a filling station, a drive, a road by St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church or the car park at The Duchess of Kirkcaldy: the fluid, the quantity, and if the motor has run. Those replies determine this work, and you get the price by phone, before anyone sets off.
AdBlue crystallises and eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, and so it won't rinse out on its own; that is why the flush, after the drain, counts much more here than with petrol. Fresh diesel is put in once the filter is flushed or replaced, and the car is then tested. Never started? Then about half an hour on site covers most jobs.
Our technicians start it last. Our test that it runs properly on new diesel comes before we leave. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it is noticed soon, and the whole job is done where the car is. Paying comes that day, never in advance. For your insurer, you get a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer. Plenty of insurance policies cover misfuelling, so check yours while the van travels.
About Linktown and where it is
Linktown is a coastal suburban area in Fife, situated near the towns of Kirkcaldy and Pathhead. Linktown lies at a low elevation of around 12 metres, close to the shoreline. Linktown is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is common in many Scottish coastal towns. Linktown is located near the larger town of Kirkcaldy, with Edinburgh just over 10 miles away.
AdBlue drains about Linktown and across Fife
Over KY postcodes, the teams covering Linktown — a residential suburb — work nearby towns too, Port Brae and Pathhead among them. Telling us a KY1 1 postcode finds you fastest of all.
No moving is required, be it parked in the centre of Linktown or on a layby heading to West Mills Plantation, and so leave it where it is. Our technicians drain the vehicle where it is. If you're somewhere hard to explain, near Baron Bailie or close to a border, ring and ask rather than guessing.
In one line: your scenario
Unstarted? Keep the car off and ring. Whatever case applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Fife and in Linktown — once you stop, switch off then ring, if it has run.