AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Low Valleyfield: Why It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Low Valleyfield, finding it before the motor turns normally means draining and a thorough flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it takes place and the ways to prevent it for good.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel goes to your motor — yet plenty of current diesels driven around Low Valleyfield and Newmills hold another liquid too. The exhaust, not your engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Separate tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Filling your diesel side at the pump happens constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the error lives.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank take place around Low Valleyfield?
It's seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a driveway off Main Street before work, or in the car park outside Red Lion Inn on the way home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
Unfamiliar motors are next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company vehicles place their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in High Valleyfield or the middle of Low Valleyfield, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, at a forecourt in Low Valleyfield or a driveway out in Culross. A few seconds, that's all.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of cars, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows where it lives when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Linlithgow? Check with the person who drove the vehicle last before you set off, not once the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever you are in Fife — a simple routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Forth View Cottages.
- Silly as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — after you have located your filler and read it.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Stage five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Low Valleyfield?
Short list, then. Top of that: your engine remains off. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
Ask the attendants to help roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Thames Petroleum, the Hastons of Bo'ness or anywhere else. At home in Low Valleyfield? So your car remains put.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Low Valleyfield lies under 5 miles from the M9; there, use the next junction. A short hop across Low Valleyfield is a smaller job than a run towards Dunfermline, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Low Valleyfield: what takes place when our technicians arrive
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Mining Memorial or on your own driveway. The replies decide the work and the quote, so we ask what went in, about how much, and if it's run. Nobody sets off before you've heard our price by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. Once your filter is flushed — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. Next our engineers start the car and check it runs properly before leaving.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for the insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to look at yours.
About Low Valleyfield itself
Low Valleyfield is a coastal village in Fife, situated near the town of Dunfermline and overlooking the Firth of Forth. Low Valleyfield has a relatively low elevation of around 8 metres, and its semi-detached housing stock is typical of many modern Scottish villages. Low Valleyfield is close to other nearby places, including High Valleyfield and Shires Mill, and is within easy reach of the city of Edinburgh, although it is some distance from London at around 345 miles away.
Low Valleyfield and Fife: AdBlue drains across the area
Shires Mill and Low Torry are among the towns near Low Valleyfield, a coastal village, that the same teams cover, throughout KY postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting KY12 8.
No need to move the car. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Valleyfield Mining Disaster Memorial, a lay-by on the way to Playing Field, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Valleyfield Church of Scotland? Close to a county line? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
Low Valleyfield motorists: the short version
Before you tip, read the cap. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it stands, anywhere across Fife.