AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Linlithgow: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Linlithgow, catching it before your motor turns normally leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you are reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of current diesels on the roads about Linlithgow and Belsyde carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Every tank comes with a filler of its own. Other motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two together under one flap. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens in Linlithgow
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, maybe before work off The Cross, or at The Four Marys on the way home that evening.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing stops it. Linlithgow Bridge or the middle of Linlithgow: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Borrowstoun or a forecourt in Linlithgow, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler is if it's not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
When the light goes on, anywhere across West Lothian, use this routine.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of Court Square.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you've located your filler and read it.
- Both under one flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side stays shut ahead of raising the bottle.
- Stop once your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly through its own spout.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Stage five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Linlithgow already?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom instead of blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
If you are on a forecourt, whether it is the BP or the Esso, ask the staff to help push your car clear of the pump. At home around Linlithgow? So the car remains put.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Linlithgow lies under a mile from the M9; on it, use the next junction. A short hop across Linlithgow is a smaller job than a run towards Dunfermline, under 10 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Linlithgow: what occurs when we turn up
Our van reaches your car wherever it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside Cross Well, or by the local primary school. Both the work and our quote depend on three answers — what fluid, what amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. No one sets off until you've had the quote over the phone.
The system is then cleaned thoroughly, after your tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and none of that washes out unaided, however long it sits. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we start the engine and confirm it runs properly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Linlithgow itself
Linlithgow is a town in West Lothian, situated on the shores of Linlithgow Loch, with a mix of detached housing and other residential properties. Linlithgow sits at an elevation of 57 metres, looking out over the loch and the surrounding countryside. Linlithgow is located near several smaller communities, including Linlithgow Bridge, Kingscavil, and Borrowstoun Mains, and is within commuting distance of Dunfermline. Linlithgow has a population of approximately 8729 people, living in a range of housing types, predominantly detached homes.
AdBlue drains across West Lothian, Linlithgow included
Linlithgow is a coastal town, and the vans that cover it also work the places near it, Kingscavil and Borrowstoun Mains among them, across the EH postcode area. Give a postcode that starts EH49 7, and the van gets there fastest.
Moving the car isn't needed. Wherever it stands — near Linlithgow Library, in a lay-by en route to Rose Gardens, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Linlithgow Museum.
The short version for Linlithgow people
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, wherever around West Lothian: keep the vehicle off then phone 0333 366 0103.